Lectures on entomology

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LECTURES

ENTOMOLOGY.

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MDCCCXXXVII.

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ON ENTOMOLOGY.

Herture.

The numerous beings comprehended under the name of insects, offer
to our regard so many interesting objects of contemplation and research,
that their history has deservedly assumed a prominent place among the
natural sciences ; although not to be compared with many other animals
in direct utility to man, they are by no means destitute even of the
interest produced by that consideration, while they possess advantages
as a subject of study and investigation equal to any other branch of
zoology. Such is the extent of the subject and the variety of aspects
in which it may be viewed, that minds of very different tastes and
capacities may find congenial occupation in some one or other of its
numerous details ; even to the fine assortment of its colours, every
thing seems on purpose to please the eye of man ; each tribe of this
extensive class of animals possesses peculiar attributes deserving of
our regard. The extreme beauty of the ( Lepidoptera) or Butterflies,
the striking contrast they present in the dilferent stages of their
existence so remarkable, as to have -caused them to be regarded by a
mystical philosophy, as the types of the luman soul released from
its material incumbrance ; their habits and times of appearance, the
one suggesting tlie purity of an ethereal nature, the other associa-
ting them in the mind of the observer, with the beauty of external
nature, and the genial influence of the seasons, have alike contributed
to render them objects of general favour.

LINNJEVS has divided insects into seven orders : 1st. — the CO-
LEOPTERA they are such as have crustaceous shells, which shut
together and form a longitudinal suture down the back of the insect,
as the Stag Beetle. 2nd.— HEMIPTERA have their upper wings,
usually half crustaceous and half membraneous, not divided by a
longitudinal suture, but incumbent on each other, as the (Cimex) or
Field Btig. 3rd.— LEPIDOPTERA are insects having four wings
covered with fine scales, in the form of powder, as in the Butterfly.
4th. — NEUROPTERA have four membraneous transparent naked
wings, generally like net-work, as the Dragon Fly. 5th. — HYMENOP-
TERA are insects with four membraneous wings, tail furnished with a
sting, as in the Bee. 6th. — DIPTERA are such as have only two
wings and poisers, as the Fly. 7th.— APTERA having no wings. This
last division contains Scorpions, Spiders, &c.

2 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

COLEOPTERA being the first order of insects and most numerous,
I shall proceed to describe some of those belonging to this order : In
this country alone, they amount by the latest and most accurate census
to upwards of 3600, thus forming nearly a third part of our insect
population ; this is considerably more than double the number of flower-
ing plants, indigenous to Britain, and greatly exceeds the whole
amount of our native vertebrate animals. When compared with the two
other orders, that are next to it in extent in this country, it will be
found that the Coleoptera are nearly one half more numerous than the
Lepidoptera, and that they stand much in relation to the Diptera, or two
winged flies. And the whole amount of insects is about 30,000, that
is 10,000 above the estimate formed by Ray, nearly a century and a
half ago. The largest Coleopterous insects inhabiting Britain, are the
Hydrous Piceus and the Stag Beetle, (Lucanus Cervus.) The latter is
nearly two inches in length including the mandibles, and the former is
not much short of the same dimensions, besides being of considerably
greater breadth. These may be considered the giants of this order of
insects, occupying one extremity of the scale. At the opposite ex-
tremity may be placed some species of the genera, Trichopteryx, Atomaria,
and Agatkidium, which are so minute as not to be larger than a full stop.
The STAG BEETLE occurs in considerable plenty, in several of
the southern counties, but has not been observed in the north of En-
gland, nor in Scotland. The larva is considered to be the Cossus of the
ancient Romans, which is described as a white worm living in the interior
of oak trees, and which was much coveted as a delicious food by these
refined epicures. The male is about two inches in length, including the
mandibles ; it is entirely of a brownish black colour, the surface shining,
and thickly covered with small punctures. The female is considerably
less, the mandibles are quite short, and the head is proportionally much
smaller ; Mr. Waterhouse relates that he kept a Stag Beetle alive for
some weeks, he says, I allowed him to bite my finger with his mandibles,
which he did with great strength, and perseverance for some seconds,
and immediately on relaxing his hold, he applied alternately one of his
antennae to the indentation, as if to ascertain whether any moisture was
flowing from the wound. The specimen which I had, became after a
time tame and playful, sometimes amusing himself by tossing about a
ball of cotton with his horns ; he was very fond of sugar moistened and
the juice of raspberries.

The most curious and interesting genius, which the order Coleoptera
contains, is the NECROPHORUS or Burying Beetle. The females
deposit their eggs in the decaying carcasses of moles, mice, and other
small animals, which they previously bury for this purpose. To
effect this operation, seemingly so disproportionate to their size and
strength, two or three beetles generally unite their labours, and remove
the earth from beneath the dead body, which gradually sinks into the exca-
vation j during this process they may be seen dragging at the object from

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 3

below, and even mounting upon it as if to tread it into the grave. They
labour at their task of inhumation, with the most unwearied industry. Ac-
cording to Mr. Gleditsh, who was the first to give an accurate account of
the proceedings of these grave-diggers, four beetles were observed
to inter in a very small space of earth to which they were confined ; no
fewer than twelve carcasses, few of which were inferior insize to a mole.
The object of all this solicitude, is the security and comfort of their
young ; as the carcass, which forms a nidus for their eggs, if left exposed
would run the risk of being devoured by beasts of prey, or the juices
would be speedily evaporated by the heat of the sun, and the maggots
thus deprived of their appropriate nourishment ; the species amounts to
nearly 30. They are almost invariably of a brownish black colour
frequently variegated with spots of orange yellow, 7 different kinds,
occur in Britain.

ATENOBUS SACER or SACRED EGYPTIAN BEETLE ; this renow-
ned insect has been singularly exempted, from the obscurity and
neglect which have fallen to the lot of most of its tribe. It was
one of those creeping things, to which the Egyptians paid divine honours,
and appears to have constituted one of the favourite deities of that re-
markable people. If it enjoyed an inferior degree of veneration to the
snake-devouring Ibis ; it certainly far surpassed in virtue the sacred
leeks and onions, from which Juvenal takes occasion to congratulate the
nation, on account of the number and dignity of its gods. It was con-
secrated to the sun, and representations of it are of frequent occurrence
in their hieroglyphical writings, it was likewise sculptured on their rings,
bracelets, necklaces, and other ornaments, and even inclosed in their
coffins along with the embalmed bodies of the dead.

The CERAMBYX LONGIMANUS or HARLEQUIN BEETLE is remarkable
for the length of its fore legs and its antennae ; this insect is of
frequent occurrence in Brazil, Guiana, and other tropical countries
of America. It is known to the natives, by the name of Mouche
Bagasse, a term taken from a tree which has lately been described under
the botanical appellation of Bagassa Guyanensis ; the wood of this tree
is of a bright yellow, and when it is felled there issues from it a white
viscid juice of a peculiar and penetrating odour, of which the insects
are so fond that they seldom fail to be attracted by it. The negroes,
who often employ themselves in searching for the rarer and more beau-
tiful kinds of insects, that they may dispose of them to collectors,
avail themselves of this propensity, and sometimes cut down these trees
as the most ready means of obtaining a supply of Beetles ; it is geneially
found on the trunk, or at the bottom of trees, rarely under the bark and
never on the leaves ; its motions are so sluggish, that it may be said to
drag itself along, rather than walk. It occasionally takes wing on the
approach of evening ; but its flight is slow and unsteady, scarcely ap-
pearing under the guidance of the animal, as it strikes against any

A '2

4 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

object that happens to be in the way, and falls to the ground ; it varies;
greatly in size and colour.

A very curious little insect is the DEATH WATCH (Anobium Tessela
turn) ; which makes a ticking noise, like the beating of a watch. And
it is believed by many people that, when the noise is heard, it is a
sign of the death of some of their relations or friends. There are two
species, one of a dark brown colour, having pellucid wings, a cap on
the head, and two antennae proceeding from beneath the eyes. The
second kind is a small greyish insect, which is very nimble and shy ;
the noise which it makes is a signal between the male and female.

THE BLISTER BEETLE or SPANISH FLY (Meloe Vesecatorius), is
entirely of a golden green. In Spain, where they are in abundance,
they are usually collected for commercial purposes in the month of
June ; they are shaken from the branches of the shrubs which they
frequent, and received in sheets spread on the ground, and are killed by
being held in hair sieves over the fumes of vinegar, and afterwards
dried ; either by exposure to the sun, or by being placed on hurdles
covered with cloth or paper in a well ventilated apartment. The blister-
ing property has been ascertained to reside in a peculiar principle, on
which chemists have bestowed the name of Cantharadine.

The HYDROUS PICEUS or GREAT WATER BEETLE ; this is the
largest aquatic Beetle inhabiting Britain. It is common in the south-
ern parts of England, but becomes rare in the north ; and has not been
observed in any part of Scotland. In its perfect state it is by no means
so rapacious as the Dytisci, sometimes even feeding on vegetable sub-
stances j but the larva is of such destructive and blood-thirsty propensi-
ties, that it is known in France by the name of ver-assassin. In that
early condition it resembles a large soft worm, of a somewhat conical
form, provided with six feet, and having its large scaly head armed with
two formidable jaws. The head moves with such freedom in all direc-
tions, that it can readily seize small shell fish and molluscae floating
on the surface, without altering the horizontal position of the body
maintained in swimming, and it is even bent backwards to devour its
prey more conveniently, by using the back as a kind of support. The
female Beetle spins a silken bag, (similar to that which may at any
time be seen, attached to a dark coloured Spider, (Lycosa Saccata) of
common occurrence under stones, and interesting for the maternal
solicitude she shows in protecting her embryo progeny. In this recep-
tacle they are left to swim about till they are hatched.

ELATER NOCTILUCUS (The Fire Fly). This insect is pretty widely dis-
tributed over the intertropical countries of South America, and the
West Indian Islands. When it walks, or is at rest, the principal light
which it emits issues from the two yellow tubercles placed at the
lateral margins of the thorax ; but when the wings and elytra are ex-
panded in the act of flight, another luminous spot is disclosed in the

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 5

hinder part of the thorax. This luminosity is so considerable, that it
is often employed in the countries where it prevails, as a substitute for
artificial lights. A single insect is sufficient to enable a person to de-
cipher the smallest written character, and when several are brought to-
gether, their light is said to suffice for all the ordinary evening occupa-
tions of an Indian's dwelling. They are employed for many useful
purposes, the Indians are said to have formerly used them instead of
flambeaux in their hunting and fishing expeditions, and when travelling
in the night they were accustomed to fasten them to their feet and
hands. Another important service is rendered by these insects in
destroying the gnats and musquitoes, which abound in tropical countries
to the incessant annoyance of the inhabitants, like most other animals
of nocturnal habits, the Jire-Jiies are attracted by strong light, and the
Indians obtain them for the purposes above mentioned. At Havannah
they are collected and sold for ornamenting the ladies head-dresses at
evening parties, when they are generally confined under gauze, which
covers the head, and from among the ringlets of hair these terrestrial
stars shine forth with all their beauty.

The TUMBLE DUNG BEETLES are so exceedingly strong and active, as
to move about with the greatest ease things that are many times their
own weight. Dr. Birchell was supping one evening in a planter's
house, at North Carolina, when one was conveyed, without his know-
ledge, under the candlestick ; a few blows were struck on the table
and, to his great surprize, the candlestick began to move about, apparently
without any agency ; and his surprize was not much lessened when, on
taking one of them up, he discovered that it was only a chafer that
moved. An insect of the size of a May Bug, says another writer,
evidently in relation to one of these beetles, is of the greatest utility in
hot climates, it is the scavenger and dustman of the whole country ; it
labours with indefatigable industry to collect all the filth that might
infest the air, and makes small balls of it, which it hides very deep in
holes which it has dug in the earth ; it breeds in sufficient numbers to
keep the town and villages clean.

The LARVA of ELATER OBSCURUS, more commonly known by the name
of the Wire-worm : it is of a very slender form, but so tough and horny
that it can resist a considerable degree of pressure without injury. It
is said to continue five years in the larva state, and during that time it
lives in the earth, devouring the roots of various kinds of corn and
vegetables. The damage it occasions in this way is so considerable,
that whole fields of grain are destroyed ; it is known to the farmers
under the name of the Fly, which does so much injury to the young
turnips.

The OIL BEETLE, (Meloe Proscarabeus) is entirely blue black or dark
violet, it is found in the advanced state of spring in fields and pastures,
creeping slowly ; the body appearing so distended with eggs, as to
cause the insect to move with difficulty. On being roughly touched

6 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

it suddenly exudes a yellowish moisture, (from whence it takes its name.)
The female deposits her eggs in a heap beneath the surface of the ground,
from these are hatched the larvae, which find subsistence bv attaching1

./ o

themselves to other insects, and absorbing their juices.

The GYRINUS NATATOR, or Whirligig Beetle. The following lively
account of the manners of this species, is given by a popular writer :
water, quiet, still water, affords a place of action to a very amu-
sing little fellow, which about the middle of April, if the weather
be tolerably mild, we see gamboling upon the surface of the sheltered
pool, and every schoolboy who has angled for minnows in the brook,
is well acquainted with this merry swimmer, in his shining black jacket;
retiring in the autumn and reposing all the winter in the mud at the
bottom of the pond, it awakens in the spring, rises to the surface and
commences its summer sports ; they associate in small parties of ten or
a dozen near the bank, where some little projection forms a bay, or
renders the water particularly tranquil, and here they will circle round
each other without contention, each in his sphere and with no apparent
object from morning until night, with great sprightliness and animation,
and so lightly do they move on the fluid as to form only some faint and
transient circles on its surface. Very fond of society we seldom see
them alone, or if parted by accident they soon rejoin their busy com-
panions. One pool commonly affords space for the amusement of
several parties, yet they do not unite or contend, but perform their cheer-
ful circlings in separate family associations ; if we interfere with their
merriment, they seem greatly alarmed, disperse or dive to the bottom,
when their fears shortly subside, as wre soon again see our little merry
friends gamboling as before. This plain, tiny, gliding, Water Flea,
seems a very unlikely creature to arrest our young attentions ; but the
boy with his angle has not much to engage his notice, and the social
active parties of this nimble swimmer, presenting themselves at these
periods of vacancy, become insensibly familiar to his sight, and by
many of us are not observed in after life without recalling former hours,
scenes of perhaps less anxious days for trifles like these, by reason of
some association are often remembered, when things of greater moment
pass off and leave no trace upon the mind.

BUPRESTIS CHRYSIS and BUPRESTIS STERNICORNIS. The former of these
Beetles is of a brown colour, the head and thorax are of a brilliant golden
green, it is a native of the East Indies in some parts of which it appears
to be rather common. The latter is of a bright green colour with golden
reflections, likewise an inhabitant of the East Indies. A few species of
buprestidtf. inhabit this country, but their proper geographical position is
within the tropics, where they may be seen flying about in great numbers
in the open parts of the forests and on the margin of rivers, or reposing
the trunks or leaves of trees, as if enjoying the heat of the meridian sun,
which is reflected with great brilliancy from their polished surfaces.

CETONIA AURATA or Rose Beetle. Rosel informs us, that he kept the

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 7

species, known in this country as the Ruse Chafer, alive for upwards of
three years, by feeding it with fruit and moistened white bread. It is
about the size of the common black garden Beetle, the colour is most bril-
liantly varnished and of a golden green. It is not very uncommon du-
ring the hottest parts of summer, frequenting various plants and flowers,
its larva is commonly found in the hollows of old trees, or among the
loose dry soil at their roots, and sometimes in the earth of ant hills.

LAMPYRIS NOCTILUCA, or Glow-worm, is seen during the summer
months on dry banks about woods and pastures, exhibiting as soon as it
is dusk vivid and phosphoric splendor, in the form of a round spot of con-
siderable size. The animal itself, which is the female insect, measures
about three quarters of an inch in length, and is of a dull earthy brown
on the upper parts, and beneath more or less tinged with rose colour,
with the two or three last joints on the body of a pale or whitish sulphur
colour ; it is from these parts that the phosphoric light proceeds. The
male is smaller than the female, and is provided with wings and wing-
sheaths ; but it is not determined whether it is luminous or not.

CICENDELA CAMPESTRIS or Tiger Beetle, is one of the most beautiful
of out indigenous insects. It is of a fine green colour, glossed witli
coppery red, and having five yellowish spots on the margin of each
elytron, and another towards the middle. The Cicindeltf, by their ra-
pacity, have procured them the name of Tiger Beetles. They prey in-
discriminately on other insects, arid few of the smaller kinds are capable
of eluding or resisting their attack.

THE COMMON COCKCHAFER (Melolontha Vulgaris) ; the larva of this
insect, called by the farmers the Grub, which does so much injury to
the crops, are three years coming to perfection ; during this time they
do immense injury, burrowing between the turf and the soil, and devour-
ing the roots of grass and other plants. The mother Cockchafer, when
about to lay her eggs, digs into the earth of a meadow or corn field to
the depth of a span, and deposits them in a cluster at the bottom of the
excavation. Rosel, in order to watch their proceedings, put some females
into glasses half-filled with earth, covered with a tuft of grass, and a
piece of thin muslin ; in a fortnight he found some hundreds of eggs
deposited, of an oval shape and a pale yellow colour. Placing the glass
in a cellar, the eggs were hatched towards autumn, and the Grubs in-
creased remarkably in size. In the following May they fed so voraciously,
that they required a fresh turf every second day, and even this proving
too scanty provender, he sowed in several garden pots a crop of peas,
lentils and salad ; and when the plants came up he put a pair of Grubs
in each pot, and in this manner fed them through the second and third
years. During this period, they cast their skins three or four times,
going for this purpose deeper into the earth, and burrowing out a hole,
where they might effect their change undisturbed, and they do the same
in the winter, during which they become torpid and do not eat. When
the Grub changes into a pupa, in the third autumn after it is hatched,

8 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

it digs a similar burrow about a yard deep, and when kept in a pot and
prevented from going deep enough, it shows great uneasiness and often
dies. The perfect Beetle comes forth from the pupa in January or
February ; but it is then as soft as it was whilst still a Grub, and does
not acquire its hardness and colour for ten or twelve days, nor does it
venture above ground before May, on the fourth year from the time of
its hatching. At this time, the beetles may be observed issuing from
their holes in the evening, and dashing themselves about in the air as
if blind.

Another Beetle Grub, popularly called the Meal Worm, the larva of
(Tenebrio Molitor) which lives in that state two years, does no little dam-
age to flour, as well as to bread, cakes, biscuit and similar articles, Sparr-
man tells us, that he has witnessed the ground peas on shipboard, so in-
fested with these Grubs, that they were seen in every spoonful of soup.

THE NUT WEEVIL (Balaminus Nucum.) This Weevil, like the rest of
its congenors, is furnished with an instrument for depositing its eggs,
considerably different from those of the Ichneumon and Saw flies. For
this purpose the Weevil makes use of its long horny beak (^Rostrum),
to drill a hole in filberts and hazel nuts, while in their young and soft
state about the beginning of August. The mother Weevil may then be seen
eagerly running over the bushes, and it would appear that she always
rejects the nuts, in which one of her neighbours may have previously
laid an egg, at least we never find two Grubs in the same nut. The
egg which is thus thrust in the young nut, is of a brown colour, and is
hatched in about a fortnight ; the Grub feeding on the interior of the
shell as well as the soft pulp, till the one becomes too hard, and the
other too dry to be nutritive. It is remarkable that during this period,
he takes care not to injure the kernel, but permits it to ripen before he
attacks it. Had he done this prematurely, he would have ultimately been
starved, as he has not the power of perforating another nut, when the
first is consumed. It is said also, that he is very careful to preserve the
original hole made by the mother, by gnawing round its inner edges in
order to facilitate his exit, which he effects when the nut falls to the
ground in September or October. The hole found in the nut appears
much too small to have admitted of its passage, but from being very
soft, it no doubt stretches itself out for the purpose, using its short
•claws as instruments of motion. Rosel, in order to observe the trans-
formation of these nut Grubs, put a number of them at the commence-
ment of winter into glasses half-filled with earth, covered with green
turf. All of them dug directly down into the earth, remained there all
the winter, and did not change into pupae till the following June, the
perfect Weevils appeared from the 1st till about the 20th of August ;
but still kept under-ground for the first week after their change.

Some of the larvae of Beetles excavate galleries in the soft inner bark
of trees or between it and the young wood. In 1783 the trees destroyed

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 9

by the Printer ficelle (Tomicus Typographus so called from its track,
resembling letters,) amounted to above a million and a half, in the Ilartz
Forest. It appears there periodically, and confines its ravages to the fir.
THE CAPRICORN BEETLE (Cerambyx Lamia Amputator) is no less de-
structive to bark in its perfect state than the above are when grubs, as
from its habits of eating round a tree it cuts the source of the returning
sap and destroys it.

1 shall now proceed to describe some of those insects belonging to
the second division, namely: HEMIPTERA, the various ins;
of voracity that I have before described sink into insignificance
when compared with the terrible devastation produced by the
Locust (Locusta migratoria). The intelligent, traveller, DR. SIIAVV,
was an eye-witness of cheir devastations in Barbary in 1724, where they
first appeared aboai the end of March ; their numbers increasing so much
in the beginning of April, as literally to darken the sun. By the mid -
die of May they began to disappear, retiring into the Mettizah and other
adjacent plains to deposit their eggs ; these were no sooner hatched in
June, he continues, than each of the broods collected itself into a squarn
compact body of a furlong or more in size and marching- afterwards directly
forwards to the sea, they let nothing escape them. They kept their ranks
like men of war, climbing over as they advanced every tree or wall that
was in their way; nay, they eniered into our very houses and bed-cham-
bers like so many thieves. The inhabitants to stop their progress, formed
trenches all over their fields and gardens whiclf they filled with water ;
some placed large quantities of heath, stubble, and other combustible
matters in rows, and se^ them on fire on the approach of the Locusts; but
this was all to no purpose Tor the trendies were quickly filled up and the
fires put out by the immense swarms that succeeded each other. Pallas
gives a more detailed account of the daily proceedings of the larvax of the
Italian Locust (Locusta Italica). In serene weather, he tells us, the Locusts
are in full motion in the morning immediately after the evaporation of the
dew, and if no dew has {'alien they appear as soon as the sun imparts his
genial warmth ; at first some are seen vimning about like messengers,
among the reposing swarms which are lying partly compressed upon the
ground at the side of small eminences, and partly attached to tall plants
and shrubs ; shortly after the whole body begins to move forward in one
direction and with little deviation. They resemble n. swarm of ants all
taking the same course at small distances but without touching each
other, they uniformly travel towards a certain region as fast as a fly can
run, and without leaping unless pursued, in which case indeed they dis-
perse, but soon collect again and follow their former route. In this man-
ner they advance from morning to evening without halting, frequently
at the rate of a hundred fathoms and upwards in the course of a day.
Although they prefer marching along high roads, footpaths, or open
tracts, yet when their progress is opposed by bushes, hedges and ditches
B

10 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

they penetrate through them ; their way can only be impeded by the wa-
ters of brooks or canals, as they are apparently terrified at every kind of
moisture ; often however they endeavour to gain the opposite bank with
the aid of overhanging boughs, and if the stalks of plants or shrubs be
laid across the water they pass in close columns over these temporary
bridges on which they even seem to rest and enjoy the refreshing cool-
ness. Towards sunset the whole swarm gradually collect in parties, and
creep up the plants or encamp on slight eminences. On cold cloudy or
rainy days they do not travel. As soon as they acquire wings they pro-
gressively disperse, but still fly about in large swarms. Even our
own island has been alarmed by the appearance of Locusts a considerable
number having visited us in 1748, but they happily perished without pro-
pagating. Other parts of Europe have not been so fortunate, in 1650 a cloud
of Locusts, were seen to enter Russia in three different places, and they
afterwards spread themselves over Poland and Lithuania in such astonish-
ing multitudes that the air was darkened and the earth covered with their
numbers ; in some places they were seen lying dead, heaped upon each
other to the depth of four feet, in others they covered the surface of the
ground like a black cloth ; the trees bent with their weight, and the damage
the country sustained exceeded computation. They have frequently come
also from Africa into Italy and Spain. In the year 591 an infinite army of
Locusts, of a size unusally large, ravaged a considerable part of Italy ; and
being at last cast into the sea (as seems for the most part to be their fate)
a pestilence, it is alledged, arose from their stench, which carried off nearly
a million of men arid beasts. In the Venetian territory, likewise, in 1478
more than 30,000 persona are said to have perished in a famine, chiefly
occasioned by the depredation of Locusts»

The MOLE CRICKET (Gryllotalpa vulgaris) is but too well known in
gardens and cornfields in some parts of England, such as Wiltshire and
Hampshire, though it is comparatively rare or unknown in others. It bur-
rows in the ground, and forms extensive galleries similar to those of the
mole though smaller, and these may always be recognized by a slightly
elevated ridge of mould ; for the insect does -not throw up the earth
in hillocks like the mole, but gradually as it digs along in the manner of
the field mouse ; in this way it commits great ravages in hot beds, and
in gardens upon pease, young cabbages, and other vegetables, the roots
of which it is said to devour. The nest which the female constructs
for her eggs in the beginning of May, is well worthy of attention. The
Rev. Mr. White, of Selborne, tells us that a gardener, at a house where
he was on a visit, while mowing grass by the side of a canal, chanced
to strike his scythe too deep and pared off a large piece of turf, laying-
open to view, an interesting scene of domestic economy : there was a
pretty chamber dug in the clay, of the form and about the dimensions it
would have had if moulded by an egg ; the walls being neatly smoothed
and polished. In this little cell were deposited about a hundred
s, of the size and form of caraway comfits, and of a dull tarnished

ON KN TOMOLOG Y. I I

wliite colour; the eggs were not very deep, but just under a little heap
of fresh mould, and within the influence of the sun's heat.

The COCHENILLE INSECTS (Coccuke), so called, from one of the species
furnishing the well-known valuable dye stuff, protect their eggs in a
very remarkable manner. The mother deposits her eggs under her
body, which becomes glued to the spot, she then dies, and her body be-
comes a covering for the eggs ; in this state the insects appear on the
bark of trees, like small w arts in the form of a boat ; and, before their
history was understood, they were with some plausibility supposed
to be vegetable galls, whence they were termed Gall Insects by the
{''much. Though the mother insect is seldom larger than a peppercorn,
the number of eggs which she lays, amounts to several thousands, and
iri fact fills the greater portion of her body.

The Coccus CACTI is the famous cochineal animal, and is a native ot
the warm parts of America. The female, which alone is valuable for
its colour, is slothful and ill shaped ; the male is scarce, it is small, slen-
der and active. At Oaxacain Mexico, the Cochineal insects are gathered
in large quantities, and the cultivation of them is the employment of
the Indians. In trade there are four sorts of Cochineal, Maitique,
Cumpeschane, Tetraschale, and Sylvester. The first is the best, and tin-
last the worst; the Cochineal is esteemed in medicine as a cordial,
sudorific and febrifuge ; but it is chiefly used by dyers and painters.

The PRAYING MANTIS is a very curious insect, it is nearly three
inches in length, of a slender shape, and in its general sitting posture
is observed to hold up the two fore legs, as if in the act of devotion.
The monkish legends toll us that St. Francis Zavier, walking one day
in a garden, and seeing an insect of the Mantis genus moving along
in its solemn way, holding up its two fore legs, as if in the act of devotion,
desired it to sing the praises of God. The legend adds, that the saint
immediately heard the insect carol a fine canticle with a loud emphasis.
This insect is of a predacious disposition, living on smaller insects ;
which it watches for with great anxiety ; it is also very pugnacious, and
when kept with others of its own species in a state of captivity, they
will attack each other with the utmost violence till one is destroyed,
and the conqueror devours his antagonist.

The SPECTRES (Phasmatte) resemble the smaller branches of trees
with their spray, and so minutely detailed is this mimicry, that the vary
snags and knobs are accurately imitated.

I shall now proceed to LEPIDOPTERA :— The PAPILIO MACIIAON or
Swallow Tailed Butterfly, is the most beautiful of the English
species, it is black and yellow, with hinder wings tailed ; it is
very local, occurring- near Bristol and Beveiioy, and in the Fens of
Lincolnshire. The proceedings of the Caterpillar, before it changes
into the pupa is very curious ; the insect first attaches the end of his
thread to the spot .selected lor hanging up the chrysalis, such a.s the
C '2

12 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

bend of a branch of fennel or wild carrot, on which it has been feeding,
and extends it outwards by the hooks on his claws, by which means he
keeps it stretched till he fixes it on the other side, forming a loop about
I \vice the diameter of his body. He repeats this process successively,
till he has spun forty, sixty, or as many threads as he deems strong
enough for his cincture, and then throwing it over his head towards
the middle of his body, he proceeds to disencumber himself of his old
skin. As the numerous threads composing the cincture are not glued
together, but remain separate, it sometimes happens that they slip in
whole or in part from the claws of the Caterpillar, and Reaumur had one
which was foiled in all its efforts to repair such an accident. It did not
indeed make any attempt to spin a fresh cincture, probably from its
materials being exhausted or from want of strength, so that when it
could not recover the fallen and entangled threads, it collected a few of
them suspended, in which it cast its skin ; but they being too weak to
sustain it gave way, and it fell and perished ; the perfect Butterfly ap-
pears the end of May and beginning of August.

ADIPPE or High Brown Fritillary, the wings are indented tawny
with lilac spots, and 23 silvery spots underneath. The Caterpillars are
brown with numerous red spines, and a black line close to a white one.
They are produced from the egg in July, and feed until September, when
they spin a fine web, under which they pass the winter, at the root of
the viola odorata, or viola tricolor, on which they feed. In Spring and in
J une they change to brown Chrysalides with silver dots, and remain three
weeks in the Chrysalis state. They generally frequent woods, and fly
very swift, and I have myself been chasing them for two hours, before
I could obtain one specimen.*

The VANESSA ATALANTA or Red Admirable, The Caterpillar of this
Butterfly, before it changes into the pupa, suspends itself to some spot ;
the Caterpillar begins, in order to attach itself securely, to weave a
mooring of silk, the structure of which is well worthy of notice ; the
threads of which this is composed are so fine that they are not easily
distinguished, The silk threads are not drawn tight along, so as to be
parallel with the surface, but are formed into a sort of projecting
button ; the Caterpillar for this purpose alternately raising and depress-
ing its head over the spot, so as to draw out the threads in the same
way as a tambouring needle is worked in making a dot upon muslin,
the base is accordingly made the broadest part, and the centre. the most
projecting for a reason which will immediately appear. When it has
finished this little button of silk, which is thickly interlaced and strong,
it turns round to examine it with its hinder pair of pro-legs, and if it
judges it to be sufficiently firm, it thrusts these among the meshes,
taking secure hold with the numerous hooks with which these are
fringed, and swings itself fearlessly into the air, hanging with its head
downwards. All this seems easy enough of performance, but it is only
*I. B. B.

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 13

preliminary, for it has still to throw off its skin together with the
hooks by which it is suspended, and this without losing its hold. The
old skin is rent by the forcible bending round of the upper part of the
body, which pushes through the angular projections of the Chrysalis, a
tedious and probably a painful operation, in which it is often engaged
the greater part of a day, and sometimes two according to its strength.
When the first rent is made, however, the included Chrysalis soon wedges
itself through the breach, the lower portion swelling out greatly more
than the upper, so as to form an inverted but somewhat irregular cone.
The included insect continuing its laborious exertions, by successively
contracting and dilating the rings of its body, pushes off the now rent
skin by degrees from the head towards the tail, as one wrould roll
down a stocking from the leg. There are two circumstances worthy of
notice in this process, the position of the insect in hanging with its head
downwards, throws a greater portion of the fluids of the body towards
the head, by means of their weight, which swell out the part that splits,
and also pushes back the old skin, while the sloughing skin is prevented
from resiliating by a series of pegs, which act like the toothed rack of
a sluice gate. The old skin being by these means pushed towards the
tail, is of course compressed into several folds, which in some degree
prevent the extension of the rent, and serve to keep the Chrysalis from
falling, for being now detached from the skin, it lias no hold upon the
meshes of the silk button, and is in fact at some distance from it. This
then is the part of the process where the nicety of the mechanism is
most worthy of admiration, for the hooks by which the insect is in the
first instance suspended from the meshes of the silk, are sloughed
off together with the skin, the grasp of whose folds becomes then the
only support of the Chrysalis. 13ut this Chrysalis now deprived of feet,
and some distance from the suspensary cordage of silk, has still to
reach this, fix itself there, and cast off the sloughed skin altogether.
This operation causes, says Bonnet, a spectator to tremble for the con-
sequences, for every movement seems to render its fall almost certain.
It is, however, provided with means which answer the same purpose as
hands to enable it to climb, it can elongate and contract at pleasure the
rings of its body j it accordingly with two contiguous rings lays hold,
as with a pair of pincers, of the portion of the sloughed skin nearest the
head, and elongating the rings beyond this seizes upon a more distant
portion, while it lets go the first; repeating the process several times
it arrives at the silk button. The Caterpillar is solitary, spinous, and
greenish, with a yellowish lateral line ; at the end of July changes into
the pupa ; in fourteen days after becoming a Chrysalis, the Butterfly
appears.

The VANESSA lo (Peacock Butterfly) appears in spring, and the middle
of July, till late in autumn ; wings above purplish or reddish brown,
with a large eye-like spot near the tip of the first, and towards the
margin of the second pair, underneath brown, marbled, banded, and

14 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

spotted with black. Caterpillar gregarious, black spotted with white ;
the feet rust coloured ; feeds on the nettle. Chrysalis green, gold
spotted. Common in the south of England, and found also in Yorkshire
and Scotland.

The TORTOISESHELL (Vanessa Urtica) appears in spring, the end of June,
and beginning of September, wings above deep orange, base black, hin-
der margin black, with a series of blue crescents, Caterpillar dusky, head
black, when young it is gregarious. Common throughout the kingdom.

The PROCESSION MOTH (Cnethocampa Processionea) . The Caterpillar of
this Moth feeds on the oak a brood dividing when nearly hatched into
one or more parties of several hundred individuals, which afterwards
unite in constructing a common nest, nearly two feet long and from four
to six inches in diameter. As it is not divided like that of the brown tails
into chambers, but consists of one large hall, it is not necessary that
there should be more openings, than one ; and accordingly when an in-
dividual goes out and carpets a path, the whole colony instinctively
follow in the same track, though from the immense population, they are
often compelled to march in parallel files from two to six deep. The
procession is always headed by a single Caterpillar, sometimes the
leader is immediately followed by one or two in single file, and some-
times by two abreast.

The GOAT MOTH (Cossus Ligniperda.) The Caterpillar of this Moth,
which abound in Kent t and many other parts of the Island, feeds on the
wood of willows, oaks, poplars, and other trees, in which it eats ex-
tensive galleries ; but it is not contented with the protection afforded
by these galleries during the colder months of winter, before the arrival
of which, it scoops out a hollow in the tree, if it does not find one
ready prepared, sufficiently large to contain its body in a bent or some-
what coiled up position. Ilennie thus speaks of it : " On sawing off a
portion of an old poplar in the winter of 1827, we found such a cell
with a Caterpillar coiled up in it. It had not, however, been contented
with the bare walls of the retreat, which it had hewn out of the
tree, for it had lined it with a fabric as thick as coarse broad
cloth and equally warm, composed of the raspings of the wood scraped
out of the cell, united with the strong silk which every species of
Caterpillar can spin. In this snug retreat our Caterpillar, if it had not
been disturbed, would have spent the winter without eating ; but upon
being removed into a warm room and placed under a glass, along with
some pieces of wood which it might eat if so inclined, it was roused
for a time from its dormant state, and began to move about. It was not
long, however, in constructing a new cell for itself, no less ingenious
than that of the former. It either would not gnaw into the fir plank,
where it was now placed with a glass above it, or it did not choose to
do so, for it left it untouched and made it the basis of the edifice it
began to construct ; it formed, in fact, a covering for itself, precisely like
the one from which \ve hud dislodged it, composed of raspings cf wood

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 15

detached for the purpose from what had been given it as food ; the largest
piece of wood had been employed as a substantial covering, and protec-
tion for the whole. It remained in this retreat motionless and without
food, till revived by the warmth of the ensuing spring; when it gnawed
its way out, and began to eat voraciously to make up for its long fast.
These Caterpillars are three years in arriving at their final change into the
winged state ; but as the one just mentioned was nearly full grown, it
began in the month of May to prepare a cell in which it might undergo
its metamorphosis. Whether it had actually improved its skill in architec-
ture by its previous experience, we will not undertake to say, but its
second cell was greatly superior to the first. In the first, there was only
one large piece of wood employed ; in the second, two pieces were
plured in such a manner as to support each other, and beneath the angle
thus formed an oblong structure, was made, composed as before of wood
raspings and silk, but much stronger in texture than the winter cell,
In a few weeks (four if we recollect aright), the Moth came forth."

iUrture.

The CLOTHES MOTH (Tinea Destructor). The mother insect takes
care to deposit her eggs on or near such substances, as she instinctively
foreknows will be best adapted for the food of the young, taking care to
distribute them so that there may be a plentiful supply, and enough
room for each, for example some of the Caterpillars feed upon the shreds
of cloth used in training wall fruit trees ; but there is never found more
than two on the same shred. This scattering of the eggs in many
places, renders the effects of the Caterpillars more injurious, from their
attacking many parts of a garment, or a piece of stuff at the same time.
When one of the Caterpillars of this family issues from the egg, its
first care is to provide itself with a domicile, which indeed seems no
less indispensible than food, for, like all Caterpillars that feed under
cover, it will not eat while it remains unprotected. Its mode of build-
ing is very similar to that which is employed by other Caterpillars, that
make use of extraneous materials. The foundation or frame work is
made of silk secreted by itself, and into this it interweaves portions of
the materials upon which it feeds. We have repeatedly witnessed (says
Rennie), the proceedings of these insects from the very foundation of
their structure, and at the moment of writing this, we turned out one
from- the carcase of an Old Lady Moth (Mormo Maura) in our cabinet,
and placed it on a desk covered with green cloth, where it found
materials to construct another dwelling. It wandered about for half a
day before it began its operations ; but it did not, as asserted by Bonnet,
Kirby, and Spence, in moving from place to place, seem to be as
much incommoded by the lojng hairs which surrounded it, as we are by
walking amongst high grass ; nor accordingly, marching scythe in hnnd,

16 Oy ENTOMOLOGY,

did it with its teeth cut out a smooth road ; on the contrary, it did not
cut a single hair, till it selected one for the foundation of its intended
structure. This it cut very near the cloth, in order we suppose to have
it as long as possible, and placed it on a line with its body. It then im-
mediately cut another and, placing it parallel to the first, bound both
together with a few threads of its own silk ; the same process was re-
peated with other hairs, till the little creature had made a fabric of some
thickness ; and this it went on to extend till it was large enough to
cover its body, which (as is usual with Caterpillars) it employed as a
model and measure for regulating its operations. We remarked, that it
made choice of longer hairs for the outside than for the parts of the
interior, which it thought necessary to strengthen by fresh additions ;
but the chamber was ultimately finished by a fine and closely woven
tapestry of silk. We could see the progress of its work by looking
into the opening at either of the ends, for at this stage of the structure
the walls are quite opaque and the insect concealed. It may be thus
observed to turn round, by doubling itself and bringing its head where
the tail had just been, of course the interior is left wide enough for this
purpose, and the centre indeed where it turns is always wider than the
extremities. The effluvium of camphor or turpentine will kill them
when in the winged state, which is the time when the mischief is first
done ; and if camphor is laid in the drawers or other places, were
woollen or furs are placed, it will preserve them from being destroyed ;
but this will have no effect if they have already laid their eggs, and
seldom upon the Caterpillars, for they wrap themselves up too closely to
be easily reached by any agent except heat. This when it can be con-
veniently applied, will be certain either to dislodge or kill them ; when
the effluvium of turpentine however reaches the Caterpillar, Bonnet
says, it falls into convulsions, becomes covered with livid blotches and
dies.

The GONEPTERYX RHAMNI ; or Brimstone Butterfly, is a very pretty
insect ; it appears the middle of February, beginning of June, and in
autumn. Wings two inches and a half angular, primrose yellow in the
male, greenish white in the female, each with a darker spot ; Caterpillar
pale green with a whitish stripe on the sides ; feeds on the buckthorn
and berry bearing alder.

The CATERPILLARS of a family of small Moths (Tineidcz), which feed
on the leaves of various trees, such as the hawthorn, the elm, ' the oak,
and most fruit trees, particularly the pear , form habitations which are
exceedingly ingenious and elegant. They are so very minute that they
require close inspection to discover them, and to the cursory observer
unacquainted with their habits, they will appear more like the withered
leaf scales of the tree, thrown off when the buds expand, than artificial
structures made by insects. It is only indeed by seeing them move
about upon the leaves, that we discover they are inhabited by a living-
tenant, who carries them as the snail does his shell. These tents are

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 17

from a quarter of an inch to an inch in length, arid usually about the
breadth of an oat straw. That they are the colour of a withered leaf is
not surprising, for they are actually composed of a piece of leaf, not
however cut out from the whole thickness ; but artfully separated from
the upper layer, as a person might separate one of the leaves of paper
from a sheet of pasteboard.

SPHINX LIGUSTRI (Privet Hawk Moth.) This is one of the largest
species of Lepidopterous insects, it appears at the end of June and be-
ginning of July. It flies for the most part early in the morning or late
in the evening. It changes into a pupa sometimes under leaves, but
mostly in the earth. It flies with great rapidity and makes a noise with its
wings. The Caterpillar feeds on the privet, lilac, ash, alder, and willow.
It goes into the Chrysalis in August, and the Moth appears the follow-
ing June.

The BUFF TIP (Pygcera Bucephala.) In 1826 Colonies of the Cater-
pillar of this Moth were in some parts of the country very abundant.
They were remarked particularly at Harrow on the Hill and at Comp-
ton Basset, in Wiltshire. From their feeding in company, they strip a
tree, branch after branch ; scarcely leaving the fragment of a leaf, till
a great portion of it is completely bare. Some of the magnificent beeches
in Cornpton Park, from this cause appeared with the one half of their
branches leafless and naked, while the other half was untouched.
Besides the beech these Caterpillars feed on the oak, the lime, the hazel,
the elm, and the willow. When newly hatched they may readily be
discovered, from their singular manner of marshalling themselves, like
a file of soldiers, on a single leaf, only eating it half through ; and in
their more advanced stage, their gaudy stripes of yellow and black,
make them very conspicuous on the branches which they have nearly
stripped bare. The Cuckoo feeds as greedily upon them, us they do on
leaves, and may be seen early in the morning perched in the midst of
their colonies, and devouring them by dozens.

The EMPEROR MOTH is no less worthy of onr attention, with respect
to the ingenuity of its architecture than the beauty of its colours, and
has consequently attracted the attention of every Entomologist. The
Caterpillar feeds on fruit trees and on the willow, and spins a cocoon
in the form of a Florence flask, of strong silk, so thickly woven that it
appears almost like damask or leather. It differs from most other cocoons
in not being closed at the upper or smaller end, which terminates in a
narrow circular aperture, formed by the convergence of little bundles
of silk gummed together, and almost as elastic as whalebone. In con-
sequence of all these terminating in needle-shaped points, the entrance
of depredators is guarded against, upon the principle which prevents
the escape of a mouse from a wire-trap. The insect, however, not con-
tented with this protection, constructs another in form of a canopy or
dome within the external aperture, so as effectually to shield the Chry-
salis from danger. The cocoon of the Emperor Moth, though thus in

c

18 OX ENTOMOLOGY.

some measure impenetrable from without, is readily opened from within- ;
and when the Moth issues from its pupa case, it easily makes its way
out, without either the acid or eye files ascribed to the Silkworm. The
elastic silk gives way upon being- pushed from within and, when the
insect is fairly out, it shuts again of its own accord like a door with
spring hinges ; a circumstance which at first puzzled Roesel not a little,
when he saw a fine large Moth in his box, and the cocoon apparently in
the same state as when he had put it there.

The SILK WORM is too well known to require description ; but some
particulars relative to the silk, and the early history of this renowned
insect may not be considered uninteresting. In ancient times the
manufacture of silk was confined to the East Indies and China, where
the insects that produce it are indigenous. It was thence brought to
Europe in small quantities, and in early times sold at so extravagant a
price, that it was deemed too expensive even for royalty. The Emperor
Aurelian assigned the expence as a reason for refusing his Empress a
robe of silk ; and our own James I., before his accession to the crown
of England, had to borrow of the Earl of Mar a pair of silk stockings
to appear in before the English Ambassador ; a circumstance which
probably led him to promote the cultivation of silk in England. The
Roman authors were altogether ignorant of its origin, some supposing it
to be grown on trees, as hair grows on animals ; others that it was pro-
duced by a shell-fish, similar to the muscle which is known to throw out
threads, for the purpose of attaching itself to rocks ; others that it was
the entrails of a sort of spider, which was fed for four years with paste,
and then with the leaves of the green willow, till it burst with fat ; and
others that it was the produce of a worm, which built nests of clay and
collected wax. The insect was at length spread into Persia, and its eggs
were afterwards, at the instance of the Emperor Justinian, concealed in
hollow canes by two monks, and conveyed to the Isle of Cos. This em-
peror, in the sixth century, caused them to be introduced into Constant!,
nople, and made an object of public utility. They were thence suc-
cessively cultivated in Greece, in Arabia, in Spain, in Italy, in France
and in all places where any hope could be indulged of their succeeding.

In America, the culture of the Silk-worm was introduced into Virginia
in the time of James I. who himself composed a book of instructions on
the subject, and caused mulberry-trees and Silk-worm's eggs to be sent to
the colony. In Georgia also, lands were granted, on condition. of plant-
ing one hundred white mulberry-trees on every ten acres of cleared
land. The growth of the Silk-worm has also been tried, but with no
great success in this country. Evelyn computed that one mulberry-tree
would feed as many Silk-worms annually, as would produce seven
pounds of silk. According to that estimate, says Barham, the 2000
trees already planted in Chelsea Park, (which take up one third of it) ;
will make 14,0001bs. weight of silk ; to be commonly worth but 20s. a
pound, those trees must make ^14,000 per annum. During the last

Apt*,

Bet,.J

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 19

century some French refugees'in the South of Ireland, made consider-
able plantations of the mulberry, and had begun the cultivation of silk
with every appearance of success ; but since their removal, the trees
have, been cut down. In the vicinity of London also a considerable
plantation of mulberry-trees were purchased by the British, Irish, and
Colonial Silk Company in 1825; but I have not learned whether this
company have any active measures now in operation.

The six spot BURNET HAWK MOTH (Anthrocera Filipendula) appears
the end of June or beginning of July. Wings one inch one half to
seven twelfths, first pair azure blue with six blood red spots, second
pair deep red with an indistinct dark blue margin, abdomen spotless
black ; Caterpillar primrose yellow, with three rows of black spots on
the back, and a row of smaller ones on each side, head black, feeds on
plaintain, clover, dandelion, mouse-ear, hawkseed, quake grass, &c.
Chrysalis yellow ; common in the North of England, Devonshire, South
Wales, and near London.

The HONEYCOMB MOTH (Galleria Cereana) does very considerable
damage to the hives of Bees. The Moth appears about the end of June
or beginning of July, and when in danger it runs rather than flies,
gliding with such celerity, that they can easily elude the vigilance of
the Bees ; which indeed, if we may trust Swammerdam, never attack it,
nor prevent its entrance into the hive, unless it chances to brush
against them in its passage. But Reaumur actually saw the Bees pursue
one though without success. It becomes easy for a Moth, at all events,
to lay eggs among the combs or, as Keys says, at the entrance of the
hive. This writer adds she spins a close and strong web to defend the
young, which is impossible, as no insect subsequent to its larva state
can spin. The Caterpillar wherever it passes, says Swammerdam,
gnaws round holes through the waxen cells j one Caterpillar sometimes
breaking open and destroying fifty or sixty cells. Wherever it penetrates,
it always fabricates a hollow tubulated web, in which, as a rabbit in
its burrow, it can very swiftly pass from one part to another, and
speedily run back again. It fills the whole comb with such webs, and
turns itself in them every way into various turnings and windings, so
that the Bees are not only perplexed and disturbed in their work, but
they frequently entangle themselves by the claws and hairs of their legs
in those webs and the whole hive is destroyed.

The next division of the seven orders, is NEUROPTERA. The
ANT LION (Myrmeleon Formicaries.) The observations of the continen-
tal naturalists have made known to us a pitfall constructed by an insect,
the details of whose operations are exceedingly curious ; we refer to the
Grub of the Ant Lion, which, though marked by Dr. Turton and Mr.
Stewart as British, has not (at least of late years) been found in this
country. As it is not however uncommon in France and Switzerland,
it is probable it may yet be discovered in some spot hitherto unexplored,
and if so it will well reward the search of the curious. The Ant Lion

c 2

20 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

Grub being of a grey colour, and having its body composed of rings, is
not unlike a Woodlouse fOniscus), though it is larger, more triangular,
has only six legs, and most formidable jaws in form of a reaping hook,
or a pair of calliper compasses. The jaws, are however, not for masti-
cating, but are perforated and tubular, for the purpose of sucking the
juices of Ants, upon which it feeds. Vallisnieri was therefore mistaken*
as Reaumur well remarks, when he supposed that he had discovered its
mouth. Its habits require that it should walk backwards, and this is
the only species of locomotion which it can perform. Even this sort of
motion it executes very slowly, and were it not for the ingenuity of its
stratagems, it would fare but sparingly ; since its chief food consists of
Ants, whose activity and swiftness of foot would otherwise render it
impossible for it to make a single capture. Nature however in this, as in
nearly every other case, has given a compensating power to the individual
animal to balance its privation. The Ant Lion is slow, but it is extremely
sagacious it cannot follow its prey ; but it can entrap it. The snare
which the Grub of the Ant Lion employs, consists of a funnel shaped
excavation formed in loose sand, at the bottom of which it lies in wait
for the Ants, that chance to stumble over the margin, and cannot from
the looseness of the walls gain a sufficient footing to effect their escape,
When the pitfall is intended to be small, it only thrusts its body back-
wards. It then examines, the nature of the soil, whether it be suffi-
ciently dry and fine for its purpose, and if so, it begins by tracing out
a circle where the mouth of its funnel trap is intended to be. Having
thus marked the limits of its pit, it proceeds to scoop out the interior.
Getting within the circle, and using one of its legs as a shovel
it places therewith a load of sand on the flat part of its head, and it
throws the whole with a jerk, some inches beyond the circle. It is
worthy of remark, that it only uses one leg in this operation, the one
namely, which is nearest the centre of the circle. Were it to employ
the others in digging away the sand, it would encroach upon the re-
gularity of its plan. Working with great industry and adroitness (in
the manner we have just described), it quickly makes the round of its
circle, and as it works backwards, it soon arrives at the point where it
commenced. Instead, however, of proceeding from this point in the
same direction as before, it wheels about and works a round in the con-
trary direction, and in this way it avoids throwing all the fatigue of the
labour on one leg ; alternating them every round of the circle. The
pitfall when finished, is usually about three inches in diameter at the
top, about two inches deep, and gradually contracting into a point, in
the manner of a cone or funnel ; in the bottom of this pit, the Ant Lion
stations itself to watch for its prey. Should an Ant or any other insect
wander within the verge of the funnel, it can scarcely fail to dislodge
and roll down some particles of sand, which will give notice to the Ant
Lion below to be on the alert. In order to secure the prey, Reaumur,
Bonnet, and others, have observed the ingenious insect throw up

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 21

showers of sand, by jerking it from its head in quick succession, till
the luckless Ant is precipitated within reach of the jaws of its concealed
enemy. It feeds only on the blood or juice of insects, and as soon as it
has extracted these, it tosses the dry carcase out of its den. Its next
care is to mount the sides of the pitfall, and repair any damage it may
have suffered, and when this is accomplished, it again buries itself among
the sand at the bottom, leaving nothing but its jaws above the surface,
ready to seize the next victim. When it is about to change into a pupa,
it proceeds in nearly the same manner as the Caterpillar of the Water
Ebony Moth (Cucullia Scrophularid'). It first builds a case of sand,
the particles of which are secured by threads of silk, and then tapestries,
the whole with a silken web. Within this it undergoes its transforma-
tion into a pupa, and in due time it emerges in the form of a four winged
Fly closely resembling the Dragon Flies (Libellula) ; vulgarly and
erroneously called horse-stingers, as they are not provided with a sting.
The Grubs of several of the numerous species of May Fly, EPHEMERA,
excavate burrows for themselves in soft earth on the banks of rivers
and canals, under the level of the water ; an operation well described
by Reaumur. The excavations are always proportioned to the size of
the inhabitant, and consequently, when it is young and small, the hole
is proportionally small; though, with respect to extent, it is always at
least double the length of its body. The hole being under the level of
the river is always filled with water, so that the Grub swims in its native
element ; and, while it is secure from being preyed upon by fishes, it
has its own food within easy reach. It feeds, in fact, upon the slime or
moistened clay with which its hole is lined. It is usually about the
middle of August that the Ephemera of the Seine and Marne (two rivers
in France), are expected by the fishermen ; and when their season is
come, they talk of the Manna beginning to appear, calling the insects by
this term on account of the quantity of food for the fish, which falls as
the manna is recorded to have done in the desert. On the 19th of August,
Reaumur, having received notice that the Flies had begun to appear*
and that millions of them were coming out of the water, got into his
boat about three hours before sunset, but after staying in the boat till
eight o'clock without seeing any, he resolved, as a storm was foreboded,
to return. He had previously detached from the banks of the river
several masses of earth filled with pupa, which he put into a large tub
full of water. His servants, who were carrying the tub home, had
scarcely set it upon one of the steps of the stairs leading from the o-ar-
den to the Marne, when he heard them exclaim, " What a prodigious
number of Ephemera are here ! " He immediately seized one of the
torches and ran to the tub, where he found every piece of earth above
the surface of the water swarming with the Flies ; some just beginning
to quit their old skins, others preparing to fly, and others already on the
wing, while every where under water they were seen in a greater or
less degree of forwardness. The threatened storm of rain and lightning

22 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

at length coming on, he was compelled to leave this interesting scene ;
but to prevent the escape of the insects he had the tub covered with a
cloth. The violence of the rain ceased in about half an hour, when he
returned to the garden, and as soon as the cloth was removed from the
tub, he perceived that the number of Flies was prodigiously augmented,
and continued to increase for some time as he stood watching them.
Many flew away, and many more were drowned ; but the number which
had already undergone their transformation from the earth in the tub
would have been sufficient to fill it, exclusively of crowds of others
which the light had attracted from a distance. He again spread the cloth
over the tub, and the light was held above it, immediately the cloth was
almost concealed by the vast multitudes which alighted upon it. What
he had observed, however, at the tub, was nothing to the scene now
exhibited on the banks of the river, to which he was again attracted by
the exclamations of his gardener. The countless numbers, he says, of
Ephemera which swarmed over the water can neither be conceived nor
expressed. When snow falls thickest, and in the largest flakes, the air
is never so completely full of them as that which we witnessed filled
with Ephemera. I had scarcely remained a few minutes in one place
when the step on which I stood was covered in every part with their
bodies, from two to four inches in depth. Near the lowest step, a sur-
face of water of five or six feet dimensions every way, was entirely
covered with a thick layer of them ; and those which the stream swept
away were more than replaced by the multitudes that were continually
falling, and I was repeatedly compelled to abandon my station from not
being able to bear the shower of insects which, not falling perpendicu-
larly like rain, struck me incessantly, and in a manner extremely un-
comfortable, pelting against every part of my face, and filling my eyes,
nose, and mouth almost to suffocation. On this occasion it was no
pleasant part to hold the light, for our torch-bearer had his clothes
covered with insects in a few moments, which rushed in from all quar-
ters to overwhelm him. The light of the torch gave origin to a spectacle
which enchanted every one who beheld it, and altogether different from
a meteorological shower — even the most stupid and unobserving of my
domestics were never satisfied with gazing at it. No armillary sphere
was ever formed of so many circular zones in every possible direction,
having the light for their common centre. Their number seemed to be
infinite, crossing each other in all directions and in every imaginable
degree and inclination, all of which were more or less oblique. Each
of these zones was composed of an unbroken string of Ephemera, which
followed each other close in the same line, as if they had been tied
together head and tail, resembling a piece of silver ribbon deeply in-
dented on its edges, and consisting of equal triangles placed end to end j
so that the angles of those that followed were supported by the base
of those which preceded, the whole moving round with incredible
velocity. This spectacle was caused by the wings of the insects, which

ON ENTOMOLOGY.

alone could be distinguished. Each of these Flies, after having de-
scribed one or two orbits, fell to the earth or into the water, though not
in consequence of being burned. He says, it is astonishing that the
Ephemera, which appearing after sunset and dying before sunrise, are
destined never to behold the dawn of day, should have so strong an
inclination for any luminous object. Some of our British Ephemerae
begin their dances with the dawn instead of waiting till sunset, rising
and falling continually over the meadows in May ; sometimes beating
the air rapidly with their wings, and sometimes skimming about like
hawks.

There is a very interesting class of Grubs which live under the
water, where they construct for themselves moveable tents of various
materials as their habits direct them, or as the substances they require
can be conveniently procured. Among the materials used by these
singular Grubs, well known to fishermen by the name of Caddis Worms,
and to naturalists as the larva of four-winged Flies, we may mention
sandstones, shells, wood, and leaves, which are skilfully joined, and
strongly cemented. One of these Grubs forms a pretty case of leaves
glued together longitudinally, but leaving an aperture sufficiently large
for the inhabitant to put out its head and shoulders when it wishes to
look about for food. Another employs pieces of reed cut into conve-
nient lengths, carefully joining and cementing each piece to its fellow
as the work proceeds, and he frequently finishes the whole by adding a
broad piece longer than the rest to shade his doorway overhead, so that
he may not be seen from above. A more laborious structure is reared
by the Grub of a beautiful Caddis Fly (Phryganea), which weaves to-
gether a group of the leaves of aquatic plants into a roundish ball, and
in the interior of this forms a cell for its abode. Another of these
aquatic architects makes choice of the tiny shells of young fresh water
muscles and snails (Planorbis), to form a moveable grotto ; and as
these little shells are for the most part inhabited, he keeps the poor
animals close prisoners, and drags them without mercy along with him.
These grotto buildings are by no means uncommon in ponds and in
chalk districts, such as the country about Woolwich and Gravesend.
One of the most surprising instances of their skill occurs in the struc-
tures, of which small stones are the principal material. The problem
is to make a tube about the width of the hollow of a wheat straw or a
crow quill, and equally smooth and uniform. Now, the material being
small stones full of angles and irregularities, the difficulty of perform-
ing this problem will appear to be considerable, if not insurmountable ;
yet the little insects, by patiently examining their stones, and turning
them round on every side, never fail to accomplish their plan. This,
however, is only part of the problem which is complicated with another
condition, namely, that the under surface shall be flat and smooth, with-
out any projecting angles, which might impede its progress when
dragged along the bottom of the rivulet where it resides. The selection

24 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

of the stones, indeed, may be accounted for from this species living- in
streams where, but for the weight of its house, it would to a certainty
be swept away. For this purpose it is probable that the Grub makes
choice of larger stones than it might otherwise want, and therefore also
it is that we frequently find a case composed of very small stones and
sand, to which, when nearly finished, a large stone is added by way of
ballast. In other instances, when the material is found to possess too
great specific gravity, a bit of light wood or a hollow straw is added to
buoy up the case. It is worthy of remark, that the cement used in all
these cases is superior to pozzolana (a cement prepared of volcanic
earth or lava), in standing water, which is indissoluble. The Grubs
themselves are also admirably adapted for their mode of life, the portion
pf their bodies, which is always enclosed in a case, being soft like a
Meal Worm or Caterpillar, while the head and shoulders, which are for
the most part projected beyond the door-way in search of food, are firm,
hard, and, consequently, less liable to injury than the protected portion,
should it chance to be exposed. We have repeatedly, says Rennie,
tried experiments with the inhabitants of those aquatic tents to ascer-
tain their mode of building. We have deprived them of their little
houses, and furnished them with materials for constructing new ones,
watching their proceedings from the laying the first stone or shell of the
structure. They work at the commencement in a very clumsy manner,
attaching a great number of chips to whatever materials may be within
their reach, with loose threads of silk, and many of these they never use
at all in their perfect building. They act, indeed, much like an unskil-
ful workman, trying his hand before committing himself upon an in-
tended work of difficult execution. The main intention is, however, to
have abundance of materials within their reach, for after their dwelling
is fairly begun they shut themselves up in it, and do not again protrude
more than half of their body to procure materials ; and even when they
have dragged a stone, a shell, or a chip of reed within building reach,
they have often to reject it as unfit for use.

Before we began to study the habits of insects, says Rennie, we
found upon a lilac twig in the neighbourhood of London a singular pro-
duction, which we took for a very delicate Fungus, and supposing it not
to be common we carefully preserved the specimens ; but we have since
learned, with no little surprise, that these are the eggs of the lace-
winged Fly, (Chrysopa Reticulata). Reaumur says, that several
naturalists have described them as Fungi, which is not to be wondered
at, for they consist of a small oval greenish white head, similar to the
apple mould, with a white transparent stem, more than an inch high,
not thicker than a human hair, but much more stiff and rigid. About a
dozen of these eggs are deposited in a single and sometimes in a double
line upon the leaves and branches of elder, and other trees and plants
abounding with aphides, upon which the Grubs feed when hatched. The
footstalks of these eggs are formed by the mother Fly attaching a

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 25

drop of gluten to the branch, and drawing it out (as a spider does his
line) to the requisite length before the egg is deposited upon the sum-
mit. As she uses her body for a measure, the footstalks are by conse-
quence all nearly of equal length. It is evidently the design of these
footstalks to place the eggs out of the reach of the Grubs of Lady Birds
(Coccinella), and Aphidivorous Flies (Syrphi), which frequent the same
situation and might devour them. The footstalks are so smooth and
slender that these Grubs could not climb them, as we have proved b^
experiment.

A singular structure for respiration occurs in the aquatic larvae of the
Dragon Flies, LIBELLULID*:, which differ so remarkably from the perfect
insect in the beauty of colour and elegance of form, that has procured
for them the gallant appellation of Demoiselles (damsels) in France. This
title agrees as badly with their habits as the popular English name of
Horse-stingers, since they have no apparatus for stinging ; and so far,
says Reaumur, from seeking an innocent nutriment in the pulp of fruit
or the nectar of flowers, they are more like amazons than damsels, hover-
ing in the air only to pounce on other insects, which they crush with
their powerful mandibles. Should they quit the margin of a pond or
the banks of a rivulet, where they may be seen hawking about in multi-
tudes, it is only to pursue and seize the Moth or the Butterfly that has
fled for shelter to the bushes. Though these Larva are furnished with
six feet, they not only move very little, but do not use them for walking
so much as for capturing their prey. Their motion is effected by a very
peculiar method. When one of these Larvcz is procured from the bot-
tom of a pond or the pool of a brook, let it be put into a large saucer
with water and some of the dead leaves or sticks it previously em-
ployed as a covering j these will soon be seen floating towards the tail,
and afterwards repelled, as a floating feather will be by a stick of seal-
ing-wax or a bit of amber when electrically excited. When the insect
has been kept out of the water for a short time, the desire or necessity
of respiration is increased, and when again put into the water, the pump-
ing is repeated with unusual force and frequency. If it be held in the
hand head downwards and some drops of water be let fall on the tail,
it instantly sucks it in, and the dimensions of its body become visibly
augmented ; but it collapses again when the water is expelled, which is
effected by the same apparatus. The Larva of the Libellula has placed
on its head a horny consistence in plates resembling a mask, that if
Entomologists ever went to masquerades, they could not more effectually
relieve the insipidity of such amusements, and attract the attention of
the demoiselles, than by appearing at the supper table with a mask of the
same construction as the Libellula's, and serving themselves by its as-
sistance. It would be difficult to be sure by mechanism to supply the
place of the muscles with which this insect is provided, but Merlin,
or his successor, has surmounted greater obstacles. When the pupa is
about to change to the perfect insect, it may be seen removing out of

D

26 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

the water to a dry place, such as a grassy bank or the stems of aquatic
plants, into which it pushes its sharp claws and remains for a short time
immoveable. By the swelling of the upper part of the body the envelope
is soon distended, and bursts asunder on the back of the head and
shoulders, and through this opening, first the head and then the legs of
the perfect Fly make their exit, while the empty slough of the legs
continues fixed in its place. After this first part of the process is accom-
plished, it hangs down its head and rests for a space, as if exhausted by
previous exertion, or rather to allow the newly excluded parts to dry
and become more firm. It next erects itself, and laying hold of the
upper part of the slough with its feet, pulls the parts still enveloped
further out, then creeping forward by degrees, it disengages the entire
body, and again rests for a time immoveable. The wings now begin to
expand themselves, and their plaits and folds become gradually smooth.
The body, also, becomes insensibly larger and longer, and the limbs
acquire their just size and proportions. While the wings are undergoing
the operation of drying and expanding, the insect takes care to keep
them from coming into contact with the body, by bending itself into the
form of a crescent; for if they were obstructed whilst wet, they could
not afterwards be set to rights. All these changes are perfected, ac-
cording to Swammerdam, by the force of the circulating fluids and the
air impelled by respiration, a fact of which there cannot be any doubt.
It is very seldom, however, that they can be surprised at the precise
moment of their transformation, as it is for the most part very speedily
accomplished, for the whole of the preceding evolutions are usually
completed in ten or fifteen minutes. It happened by mere chance, says
Swammerdam, that I observed for the first time one of these vermicles
adhering to a stone-wall in the river Loire (France), and it was so
softened by the water dashing up against it, that it could only half per-
fect its change, so that I took it partly free and partly fixed in the
skin. I once afterwards saw the change in the large kind of Dragon
Fly (Eshna), which had crept to land out of a small lake, and cast its
skin sitting in the grass.

H YMENOPTERA is the fifth order of insects. A very curious and
interesting genera Cynips, whose nests are found in abundance during the
summer on the leaves of the rose-tree, the oak, the poplar, the willow,
and many other trees, in the globular form of a body about the size of
a currant, and usually of a green-colour tinged with red, like a ripe
Alban or Baltimore apple. When this pseudo apple in miniature is cut
into, it is found to be fresh, firm, juicy, and hollow in the centre, where
there is either an egg or a Grub safely lodged and protected from all
ordinary accidents. Within this hollow ball the egg is hatched, and the
Grub feeds securely on its substance, till it prepares for its winter sleep
before changing into a Gall Fly (Cynips) in the ensuing summer. There
is a mystery as to the manner in which this Gall Fly contrives to pro-

ON ENTOMOLOGY. "27

duce the hollow miniature apples, each inclosing one of her eggs ; and
the doubts attendant upon the subject cannot, so far as our present
knowledge extends, be solved except by plausible conjectures. Our
earlier naturalists were of opinion, that it was the Grub which produced
the galls, by eating, when newly hatched, through the cuticle of the leaf,
and so remaining till the juices flowing from the wound enveloped it,
and acquired consistence by exposure to the air. This opinion, how-
ever plausible as it appeared to be, was at once disproved by finding un-
hatched eggs on opening the galls. There can be no doubt, indeed, that
the mother Gall Fly makes a hole in the plant for the purpose of de-
positing her eggs. She is furnished with an admirable ovipositor for that
express purpose, and Swammerdam actually saw a Gall Fly thus depo-
siting her eggs.

In some of these insects the ovipositor is conspicuously long, even
when the insect is at rest, but in others not above a line or two of it is
visible till the belly of the insect is pressed. When this is done to the
Fly that produces the currant gall of the oak, the ovipositor may be seen
issuing from a sheath in the form of a small curved needle, of a chesnut
brown colour, and of a horny substance, and three times as long as it
first appeared. What is most remarkable in this ovipositor is, that it is
much longer than the whole body of the insect in whose belly it is
lodged in a sheath, and from its horny nature it cannot be either short-
ened or lengthened. It is on this account, that it is bent into the same
curve as the body of the insect. The mechanism by which this is
effected is similar to that of the tongue of a Woodpecker (Picus), which,
though rather short, can be darted out far beyond the beak, by means of
the hyoid-bone (a forked bone at the root of the tongue), being thin,
and rolled up like the spring of a watch.

The nest of the Common Wasp ( Vespa Vulgarii) attracts more or less
the attention of everybody ; but its interior architecture is not so well
known as it deserves to be for its singular ingenuity, in which it rivals
even that of the Hive Bee (Apis Mellifica). In their general economy,
the Social or Republican Wasps closely resemble the Humble Bee (Bom-
bus), every colony being founded by a single female, who has survived
the winter, to the rigours of which all her summer associates and work-
ing Wasps usually fall victims ; nay, out of three hundred females
which may be found in one vespiary or Wasp's nest, towards the close of
the autumn, scarcely ten or a dozen survive till the ensuing spring, at
which season they awake from their hybernal lethargy, and begin with
ardour the labours of colonization. It may be interesting to follow one
of these Mother Wasps through her several operations, in which she
merits more the praise of industry, than the Queen of a Bee-hive ; who does
nothing, and never moves without a numerous train of obedient retainers,
always ready to execute her commands and do her homage. The Mother
Wasp, on the contrary, is at first alone, and is obliged to perform every
species of drudgery herself. Her first care, after being roused to ac-

D 2

28 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

tivity by the returning warmth of the season, is to discover a place suit-
able for her intended colony; and accordingly in the spring, Wasps may
be seen prying into every hole of a hedge-bank, particularly where field
mice have burrowed. In case of need, the Wasp is abundantly furnished
by nature with instruments for excavating a burrow out of the solid
ground, as she no doubt most commonly does; digging the earth with
her strong mandibles, and carrying it off, or pushing it out as she pro-
ceeds. The entrance gallery is about an inch or less in diameter, and
usually runs in a winding or zigzag direction from one to two feet in
depth. In the chamber to which this gallery leads, and which, when
completed, is from one to two feet in diameter, the Mother Wasp lays
the foundation of her city, beginning with the walls.

The building materials employed by Wasps were long a matter of con-
jecture to scientific enquirers, for the bluish grey papery substance of
the whole structure, has no resemblance to any sort of wax employed by
Bees for a similar purpose. Now that the discovery has been made, we
can with difficulty bring ourselves to believe (says Rennie) that a
naturalist so acute and indefatigable as Reaumur, should have for
twenty years, as he tells us, endeavoured without success, to find out
the secret. At length, however, his perseverance was rewarded. He-
remarked a female Wasp alight on the sash of his window and begin to
gnaw the wood with her mandibles, and it struck him at once that she
was procuring materials for building. He saw her detach from the wood
a bundle of fibres about a tenth of an inch in length, and finer than a
hair ; and as she did not swallow these but gathered them into a mass
with her feet, he could not doubt that his first idea was correct. In a
short time she shifted to another part of the window-frame, carrying
with her the fibres she had collected, and to which she continued to add,
when he caught her in order to examine the nature of her bundle, and
he found that it was not yet moistened nor rolled into a ball, as is always
done before employing it in building. In every other respect it had
precisely the same colour and fibrous texture as the walls of a vespiary.
It struck him as remarkable, that it bore no resemblance to wood gnawed
by other insects, such as the Goat Moth Caterpillar, which is granular
like sawdust. This would not have suited the design of the Wasp, who
was well aware that fibres of some length form a stronger texture.

He even discovered that before detaching the fibres she bruised them
(les charpissoit) into a sort of lint (charpie) with her mandibles. All
this the careful naturalist imitated by bruising and paring the same wood
of the window-sash with his pen-knife, till he succeeded in making a
little bundle of fibres scarcely to be distinguished from that collected by
the Wasp. The bundles of ligneous fibres thus detached, are moistened
before being used with a glutinous liquid, which causes them to adhere
together, and are then kneaded into a sort of paste or papier mache*
Having prepared some of this material, the Mother Wasp begins first to
line with it the roof of her chamber (for Wasps always build downwards)*

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 29

glue, she now forms into a leaf, walking backwards and spreading it out
with her mandibles, her tongue and her feet, till it is as thin almost as
tissue paper. One sheet, however, of such paper as this would form but
a fragile ceiling, quite insufficient to prevent the earth from falling down
into the nest. The Wasp, accordingly, is not satisfied with her work till
she has spread fifteen or sixteen layers one above the other, rendering
the wall altogether near two inches thick. The several layers are not
placed in contact like the layers of a piece of pasteboard, but with small
intervals or open spaces between, appearing somewhat like a grotto built
with bivalve shells, particularly when looked at on the outside. This
is probably caused by the insect working in a curvilineal manner.
Having first finished the ceiling, she next begins to build the first ter-
race of her city, which under its protection she suspends horizontally,
and not like the combs in a Bee-hive, in a perpendicular position. The
suspension of which we speak, is also light and elegant, compared with
the more heavy union of the Hive-bees combs. It is in fact a hanging-
floor, immoveably secured by rods of similar materials with the roof, but
rather stronger. From twelve to thirty of these rods, about an inch or
less in length, and a quarter of an inch or less in width, and a quarter
of an inch in diameter, are constructed for the suspension of the terrace.
They are elegant in form, being made gradually narrower towards the
middle and widening at each end, in order, no doubt, to render their
hold the stronger. The terrace itself is circular and composed of an
immense number of cells formed of the paper already described, and of
almost the same size and form as those of a honey-comb; each being a
perfect hexagon, mathematically exact, and every hair's breadth of the
space completely filled. These cells, however, are never used as honey
pots by Wasps, as they are by Bees; for Wasps make no honey, and the
cells are wholly appropriated to the rearing of their young. Like other
Hymenoplerous insects, the Grubs are placed with their head downwards,
and the opening of the cells are also downwards, while their united
bottoms form a nearly uniform level upon which the inhabitants of the
nest may walk.

We have seen, says Rennie, when a young Bee had escaped from
its cradle cell, and so rendered it empty, that cell was subsequently ap-
propriated to the storing of honey. But in the case of Wasps, a cell thus
evacuated is immediately cleaned out and repaired for the reception of
another Grub, an egg being laid in it by a Female Wasp, as soon as it is
ready. When the Foundress Wasp has completed a certain number of
cells and deposited eggs in them, she soon intermits her building opera-
tions, in order to procure food for the young Grubs, which now require
all her care. In a few weeks these become perfect Wasps, 'and lend
their assistance in the exterior of the edifice, enlarging the original
coping of the foundress by side walls, and forming another platform of
cells, suspended to the first by columns, as that had been suspended to
the cieling. lu this manner several platform of combs are constructed,

30 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

the outer walls being extended at the same time, and by the end of the
summer there is generally from twelve to fifteen platforms of cells.
Each contains about 1,060 cells, forty-nine being contained in an inch
and a half square, and of course making the enormous number of about
16,000 cells in one colony. Reaumur, upon these data, calculates that
one vespiary may produce every year more than 30,000 Wasps, reckon-
ing only 10,000 cells, and each serving successively for the cradle of
three generations. But although the whole structure is built at the
expense of so much labour and ingenuity, it has scarcely been finished
before the winter sets in, when it becomes nearly useless, and serves
only for the abode of a few benumbed females, who abandon it on the
approach of spring, and never return, for Wasps do not, like Mason Bees,
ever make use of the same nest for more than one season.

Both Reaumur and the younger Huber studied the proceedings of the
Common Wasp in the manner which has been so successful in observing
Bees — by means of glazed hives and other contrivances. In this these
naturalists were greatly aided by the extreme affection of Wasps for their
young ; for though their nest is carried off, or even cut in various direc-
tions and exposed to the light, they never desert it, nor relax their at-
tention to their progeny. When a Wasp's nest is removed from its
natural situation and covered with a glass hive, the first operation of the
inhabitants is to repair the injuries it has suffered. They carry off with
surprising activity all the earth or other matter which has fallen by acci-
dent into the nest; and when they have got it thoroughly cleared of
everything extraneous, they begin to secure it from further derange-
ment by fixing it to the glass with papyraceous columns, similar to those
which we have already described. The breaches which the nest may
have suffered are then repaired, and the thickness of the walls is aug-
mented, with the design, perhaps, of more effectually excluding the light.

It may not be out of place to relate a curious instance of the hardi-
hood (if I may so call it) of the Wasp. One of these insects was crawl-
ing up a window, when a lady seized it with a pair of scissors with the
intention of killing it, but by accident cut it in two ; the Wasp was no
longer thought of for some time, but the lady happening by chance to
look at it, thought the two parts had approached nearer each other ; it
was then watched, and after being separated for three or four hours they
gradually joined ; it then rested for a few minutes, and the parts ap-
peared to be as firmly fixed as before the accident had happened, it then
crawled up the window and flew away. This may be relied on as a fact.*

Cljtrfc

Although the HIVE BEE (Apis Mellifica) has engaged the attention
of the curious from the earliest ages, recent discoveries prove that we
* J. B.B.

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 31

are yet only beginning to arrive at a correct knowledge of its wonderful
proceedings. Pliny informs us, that Aristomachus, of Soles in Cilicia,
devoted fifty*eight years to the study ; and that Philiscus, the Thracian,
spent his whole life in forests for the purpose of observing them. But
in consequence (as we may naturally infer) of the imperfect methods of
research, assuming that what they did discover was known to Aristotle,
Columella, and Pliny, we are justified in pronouncing the statements of
these philosophers, as well as the embellished poetical pictures of Vir-
gil, to be nothing more than conjecture, almost in every particular
erroneous. It was not indeed till 1712, when glass hives were invented
by Maraldi, a mathematician at Nice, that what we may call the in-door
proceedings of Bees could be observed. This important invention was
soon afterwards taken advantage of by Reaumur, who laid the founda-
tion of the more recent discoveries of John Hunter, Scliirach, and the
Hubers.

The admirable architecture which Bees exhibit in their miniature cities,
has by these and other naturalists been investigated with great care and
accuracy. It had long been known that the Bees of a hive consist of
three sorts, which were ascertained by Reaumur to be distinguished aa
workers or neuters, constituting the bulk of the population, drones or
males the least numerous class, and a single female the queen and mother
of a colony. Schirach subsequently discovered the very extraordinary
fact, which Huber and others have proved beyond doubt, that when a
hive is accidently deprived of a queen, the Grub of a worker
is fed in a particular manner, so as to become a queen and supply the
loss. But another discovery of Huber is of more importance : by
minute research, he ascertained that the workers which had been con-
sidered by former naturalists to be all alike, are divided into two impor-
tant classes, nurse Bees and wax makers. The nurse Bees are rather
smaller than the wax workers, and even when gorged with honey their
belly does not, as in the others, appear distended. Their business is to
collect honey and impart it to their companions, to feed and take care of
the young Grubs, and to complete the combs and cells which have been
founded by the others ; but they are not charged with provisioning the
hive. The wax workers, on the other hand, are not only a little larger,
but their stomach when gorged with honey is capable of considerable
distension, as Huber proved by repeated experiments. He also ascer-
tained, that neither of the species can alone fulfil all the functions
shared among the workers of a hive. He painted those of each class
with different colours, in order to study their proceedings, and their
labours were not interchanged. In another experiment, after supplying
a hive deprived of a queen with brood and pollen, he saw the nurse Bees
quickly occupied in the nutrition of the Grubs, while those of the wax
working class neglected them ; when hives are full of combs, the wax
workers disgorge their honey into the ordinary magazines, making no .
wax ; but if they want a reservoir for its reception, and if their queen

32 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

does not find cells ready-made wherein to lay her eggs, they retain the
honey in the stomach, and in twenty-four hours they produce wax.
Then the labour of constructing combs begins. It might, perhaps, be
supposed, that when the country does not afford honey, the wax workers
consume the provision stored up in the hive ; but they are not per-
mitted to touch it. A portion of honey is carefully preserved, and the
cells containing it are protected by a waxen covering which is never
removed, except in cases of extreme necessity, and when honey is not
otherwise to be procured. The cells are at no time opened during
summer, other reservoirs always exposed contribute to the daily use of
the community ; each Bee, however, supplying itself from thence with
nothing but what is required for present wants. Wax workers appear
with large bellies at the entrance of their hive only, when the country
affords a copious collection of honey. From this it may be concluded,
that the production of the waxy matter depends on a concurrence of
circumstances not invariably subsisting. Nurse Bees also produce wax,
but in a very inferior quantity to what is elaborated by the real wax
workers. Another characteristic whereby an attentive observer can
determine the moment of Bees collecting sufficient honey to produce
wax, is the strong odour of both these substances from the hive, which is
not equally intense at any other time. From such data it was easy for
Huber to discover whether the Bees worked in wax in his own hives
and in those of the other cultivators of the district. There is still
another sort of Bees first observed by Huber in 1809, which appear to
be only casual inmates of the hive, and which are driven forth to starve
or are killed in conflict. They closely resemble the ordinary workers,
but are less hairy, and are of a much darker colour. These have been
called Black Bees, and supposed by Huber to foe defective Bees ; but
Kirby and Spence conjecture that they are toil-worn superannuated
workers of no further use ; and are therefore sacrificed because burden-
some to a community which tolerates no unnecessary inmates. The
very great numbers of Black Beest however, which sometimes appear
does not well accord with such an opinion ; the subject remains there-
fore still in uncertainty. The notion commonly entertained respecting
glass hives, is altogether erroneous. Those who are unacquainted with
Bees imagine, that by means of a glass hive all their proceedings may
easily be watched and recorded ; but it is to be remembered, that Bees
are exceedingly averse to the intrusion of light, and their first operation
in such cases is to close up every chink by which light can enter to
disturb them, either by clustering together, or by a plaster composed of
propolis. It consequently requires considerable management and inge-
nuity, even with the aid of a glass hive to see them actually at work.
Huber employed a hive with leaves, which opened iri the manner of a
book, and for some purposes he used a glass box inserted in the body
of the hive, but easily brought into use by means of screws. But no
invention hitherto contrived is sufficient to obviate every difficulty.

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 33

The Bees are so eager to afford mutual assistance, and for this purpose
so many of them crowd together in rapid succession, that the operation
of individuals can seldom be traced. Though this crowding, however, ap-
pears to an observer to be not a little confused, it is all regulated with admi-
rable order, as has been ascertained by Reaumur and other distinguished
naturalists. When Bees begin to build the hive, they divide themselves
into bands, one of which produces materials for the structure ; another
works upon these, and forms them into a rough sketch of the dimensions
and partitions of the cells. All this is completed by the second band,
who examine and adjust the angles, remove the superfluous wax, and
give the work its necessary perfection, and a third band brings provisions
to the labourers who cannot leave their work. But no distribution of
food is made to those whose charge in collecting propolis and pollen
calls them to the field, because it is supposed they will hardly forget
themselves ; neither is any allowance made to those who begin the archi-
tecture of the cells. Their province is very troublesome, because they
are obliged to level and extend as well as cut and adjust the wax to the
dimensions required ; but then they soon obtain a dismission from this
labour, and retire to the fields to regale themselves with food and wear
off their fatigue with a more agreeable employment. Those that succeed
them draw their mouth, their feet, and the extremity of the body several
times over all the work, and never desist till the whole is polished and
completed ; and as they frequently need refreshments and yet are not
permitted to retire, there are waiters always attending who serve them
with provisions when they require them. The labourer who has an
appetite bends down his trunk before the Caterer, to intimate that he has
an inclination to eat, upon which the other opens his bag of honey and
pours out a few drops, these may be distinctly seen rolling through the
whole of his trunk, which insensibly swells in every part that the liquor
flows through. When this little repast is over, the labourer returns to his
work, and his body and feet repeat the same motions as before. Before
they can commence building, however, when a colony or swarm migrates
from the original hive to a new situation, it is necessary first to collect
propolis, with which every chink and crevice in the place where they
mean to build may be carefully stopped up ; and secondly, that a quan-
tity of wax be secreted by the wax-workers to form the requisite cells.
The secretion of wax, it would appear, goes on best when the Bees are in
a state of repose, and the wax-workers accordingly suspend themselves
in the interior in an extended cluster like a curtain, which is composed
of a series of intertwined festoons or garlands, crossing each other in all
directions ; the uppermost Bee maintaining ks position by laying hold of
the roof with its fore legs, and the sccceeding one, by laying hold of the
hind legs of the first. A person says, Reaumur must have been born
devoid of curiosity not to take interest in the investigation of such
wonderful proceedings. Yet Reaumur himself seems not to have
understood that the Bees suspended themselves in this manner to secrete

E

<'M ON ENTOMOLOGY.

wax, but merely, as he imagined, to recruit themselves by rest for renew-
ing- their labours. The Bees composing the festooned curtain, are
individually motionless, but this curtain is notwithstanding kept moving
by the proceedings in the interior, for the nurse Bees never form any
portion of it and continue their activity ; a distinction with which
Reaumur was unacquainted. Although there are many thousand
labourers in a hive, they do not commence foundations for combs in
several places at once ; but wait till an individual Bee has selected a site
and laid the foundation of a comb, which serves as a directing mark for
all that are to follow. Were we not so expressly told by so accurate an
observer as Huber, we might hesitate to believe that Bees, though united
in what appears to be an harmonious monarchy, are strangers to sub-
ordination and subject to no discipline. Hence it is, that though many
Bees work on the same comb they do not appear to be guided by any
simultaneous impulse. The stimulus which moves them is successive.
An individual Bee commences each operation, and several others suc-
cessively apply themselves to accomplish the same purpose ; each Bee
appears, therefore, to act individually, either as directed by the Bees pre-
ceding it, or by the state of advancement in which it finds the work it
has to proceed with. If there be any thing like unanimous consent, it
is the inaction of several thousand workers, while a single individual
proceeds to determine and lay clown the foundation of the first comb.
Ileaumur regrets, that though he could by snatches detect a Bee at work
in founding cells, or perfecting their structure, his observations were
generally interrupted by the crowding of other Bees between him and
the little builder. He was, therefore, compelled rather to infer the
different steps of their procedure, from an examination of the cells when
completed, than from actual observation.

The ingenuity of Huber even under all the disadvantages of blindness
succeeded in tracing the minutest operations of the workers from the
first waxen plate of the foundation. I think the narrative of the dis-
coverer's experiments as given by himself, will be more interesting
than any abstract of it. Having taken a large bell-shaped glass receiver,
we glued their wooden slips to the arch at certain intervals, because the
glass itself was too smooth to admit of the Bees supporting themselves
on it. A swarm consisting of some thousand workers, several hundred
males and a fertile queen was introduced, and they soon ascended to
the top ; those first gaining the slips fixed themselves there by the fore
feet, others scrambling up the sides joined them by holding their legs
with their own, and they thus formed a kind of chain fastened by the
two ends to the upper parts of the receiver, and served as ladders or a
bridge to the workers enlarging their number ; the latter were united in
a cluster, hanging like an inverted pyramid from the top to the bottom
of the hive. The country then affording little honey, we provided the
Bees with syrup of sugar, in order to hasten their labour ; they crowded
to the edge of a vessel containing it, and having1 satisfied themselves,

ON ENTOMOLOGY. .'}/>

returned to the group. We were now struck with the absolute repose,
of the hive contrasted with the usual agitation of Bees : meanwhile the
nurse Bees alone went to forage in the country, they returned with pollen,
kept guard at the entrance of the hive, cleansed it, and stopped up its
edges with propolis. The wax-workers remained motionless above
fifteen hours ; the curtain of Bees consisting always of the same indivi-
duals, assured us that none replaced them. Some hours later we
remarked, that almost all these individuals had wax scales under the
wings, and next day this phenomenon was still more general. The
Bees forming the external layer of the cluster, having now somewhat
altered their position, enabled us to see their bellies distinctly. By the
projection of the wax scales the wings seemed edged with white ; the
curtain of Bees became rent in several places, and some commotion began
to be observed in the hive. Convinced that the combs would originate
in the centre of the swarm, our whole attention was then directed
towards the roof of the glass ; a worker at this time detached itself from
the crowd, and with its head drove away the Bees at the beginning of the
row in the middle of the arch, turning round to form a space, an inch or
more in diameter, in which it might move freely : it then fixed itself in
the centre of the space thus cleared. The worker now employing the
pincers at the joint of one of the third pair of its limbs, seized a scale of
wax projecting from a ring and brought it forward to its mouth with the
claws of its fore legs, where it appeared in a vertical position. We
remarked, that with its claws it turned the wax in every necessary
direction, that the edge of the scale was immediately broken down, and
the fragments having been accumulated in the hollow of the mandibles,
issued forth like a very narrow ribbon, impregnated with a frothy liquid
by the tongue. The tongue itself assumed the most varied shapes, and
executed the most complicated operations, being sometimes flattened
like a trowel, and at other times pointed like a pencil, and after im-
buing the whole substance of the ribbon, pushed it forward again into
the mandibles, whence it was drawn out a second time, but in an oppo-
site direction. At length the Bee applied these particles of wax to the
vault of the hive, where the saliva impregnating them, promoted their
adhesion, and also communicated a whiteness and opacity which were
wanting when the scales were detached from the rings. Doubtless this
process was to give the wax that ductility and tenacity belonging to its
perfect state. The Bee then separated with its mandibles those portions
not yet applied to use, and with the same organs afterwards arranged
them at pleasure. The founder Bee, a name appropriated to this worker,
repeated the same operations, until all the fragments worked up and
impregnated with the fluid were attached to the vault, when it repeated
the preceding operations on the part of the scale yet kept apart, and
again united to the rest what was obtained from it. A second and a
third scale were similarly treated by the same Bee, yet the work was

E 2

36 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

only sketched, for the worker did nothing but accumulate the particles
of wax together ; meanwhile the founder, quitting its position, dis-
appeared amidst its companions ; another with wax under the rings
succeeded it, which suspending itself to the same spot, withdrew a
scale by the pincers of the hind legs and passing it through its mandibles
prosecuted the work ; and taking care to make its deposit in a line with
the former, it united their extremities \ a third worker detaching itself
from the interior of the cluster, now came and reduced some of the
scales to paste, and put them near the materials accumulated by its
companions, but not in a straight line. Another Bee, apparently sensible
of the defect, removed the misplaced wax before our eyes, and carrying
it to the former heap, deposited it there exactly in the order and direction
pointed out. From all these operations was produced a block, of a
rugged surface hanging down from the arch without any perceptible
angle, or any traces of cells j it was a simple wall or ridge running in a
straight line, and without the least inflection, two-thirds of an inch in
length; about two-thirds of a cell or two lines high, and declining
towards the extremities. We have seen other foundation walls from an
inch to an inch and a half long, the form being always the same, but
none ever of greater height. The vacuity in the centre of the cluster
had permitted us to discover the first manoeuvres of the Bees, and the
art with which they laid the foundations of their edifices ; however, it
was filled up too soon for our satisfaction, for workers collecting on
both faces of the wall, obstructed our view of their further operations.

All the species of Ants are social. There are some solitary, as in the
case with Bees and Wasps. They are all more or less skilful in archi-
tecture : some employing masonry, and others being carpenters, wood-
carvers, and miners. They consequently afford much that is interest-
ing to naturalists who observe their operations. The genuine history of
Ants has only been recently investigated ; first by Gould in 1747, and
subsequently by Linnaeus, De Geer, Huber, and Latreille. Previous to
that time their real industry and their imagined foresight were held up
as moral lessons without any great accuracy of observation ; and it is
probable that even now the mixture of truth and error, in Addison's de-
lightful papers in the Guardian (No. 156, 157), may be mpre generally
attractive than the minute relations of careful naturalists. Gould dis-
proved, most satisfactorily, the ancient fable of Ants storing up corn for
winter provision, no species of Ants ever eating grain, or feeding in win-
ter upon anything. It is to Huber the younger, however, that we are
chiefly indebted for our knowledge of the habits and economy of Ants,
and to Latreille for a closer distinction of the species. Some of the
more interesting species, whose singular economy is described by the
younger Huber, have not hitherto been found in this country. M. La-
treille discovered a species of Ants which were, so far as he could
ascertain, completely blind, arid of course it would be immaterial to them

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 37

whether they worked by night or during the day. All observers, indeed,
agree that Ants labour in the night, and a French naturalist is of opinion
that they never sleep ; a circumstance which is well ascertained with re-
spect to other animals, such as the Shark, which will track a ship in full
sail for weeks together. The ingenious historian of English Ants, Gould,
says they never intermit their labours by night or by day, except when
compelled by excessive rains. It is probable the ancients were mistaken
in asserting that they only work when the moon shines ; for like Bees
they seem to make no difficulty in building in the dark, their subterranean
apartments being as well furnished as the upper stories of their build-
ings.

The BROWN ANT (Formica Brunnea^), one of the smallest of the Ants,
is particularly remarkable for the extreme finish of its work. Its body
is of a reddish shining colour. The abdomen is of an obscure brown,
the scale narrow, of a square form, and slightly scolloped. This Ant,
one of the most industrious of its tribe, forms its nest of stories four or
five lines in height, (a line is the twelfth part of an old French inch).
The partitions are not more than half a line in thickness, and the sub-
stance of which they are composed is so finely grained, that the inner
walls present one smooth unbroken surface. These stories are not
horizontal, they follow the slope of the Ant-hill, and lie one upon
another to the ground-floor, which communicates with the subterranean
lodges. They are not, however, always arranged with the same regula-
rity, for these Ants do not follow an invariable plan ; it appears on
the contrary that nature has allowed them a certain latitude in this
respect, and that they can, according to circumstances, modify them to
their wish ; but, however fantastical their habitations may appear, they
are always observed to have been formed by concentrical stories. On
examining each story separately, we observe a number of cavities or
halls, lodges of narrower dimensions, and long galleries, which serve
for general communication. The arched ceilings, covering the most
spacious places, are supported either by little columns, slender walls,
or by regular buttresses. There are also chambers that have but one
entrance communicating with the lower story, and large open spaces,
serving as a kind of cross-road, "in which all the streets terminate. Such
is the manner in which the habitations of these Ants are constructed.
Upon opening them the apartments are commonly found, as well as the
large open spaces, filled with adult Ants, and we always observe their pupa:
more or less near the surface. This, however, seems regulated by the
hour of the day and the temperature, for in this respect these Ants are
endowed with great sensibility, and know the degree of heat best adapted
for their young. The Ant-hill contains sometimes more than twenty
stories in its upper portion, and at least as many under the surface of
the ground. By this arrangement the Ants are enabled with the greatest
facility to regulate the heat. When a too burning sun overheats their
upper apartments, they withdraw their little ones to the bottom of the

•'38 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

Ant-hill. The ground floor becoming- in its turn uninhabitable during
the rainy season, the Ants of this species transport what most interests
them to the higher stories, and it is there they are found more usually
assembled with their eggs and pupse, when the subterranean apart-
ments are submerged. Ants have a great dislike to water wThen it ex-
ceeds that of a light shower to moisten their building materials. One
species, mentioned by De Azara, as indigenous to South America, in-
stinctively builds a nest from three to six feet high to provide against
the inundations during the rainy season. Even this, however, does not
always save them from submersion ; and when that occurs, they are
compelled, in order to prevent themselves from being swept away, to
form a group somewhat similar to the curtain of the wax-workers of
Jliue-bees. The Ants constituting the basis of this group lay hold of
some shrub for security, while their companions hold on by them, and
thus the whole colony, forming an animated raft, floats on the surface of
the water till the inundation (which seldom continues longer than a day
or two) subsides.

It is usual with architectural insects to employ some animal secretion
by way of mortar or size to temper the materials with which they work,
but the whole economy of Ants is so different, that it would be wrong to
infer from analogy a similarity in this respect, though the exquisite
polish and extreme delicacy of finish in their structures lead naturally
to such a conclusion. Huber, in order to resolve this question, at first
thought of subjecting the materials of the walls to chemical analysis,
but wisely abandoned it for the surer method of observation. The de-
tails which he has given as the result of his researches are exceedingly
curious and instructive. IJe began by observing an Ant-hill till he
could perceive some change in its form. The inhabitants, says he, of
that which I selected, kept within during the day, or only went out by
subterranean galleries which opened at some feet distance in the meadow.
There were, however, two or three small openings on the surface of the
nest, but I saw none of the labourers pass out this way on account of
their being too much exposed to the sun, which these insects greatly
dread. This Ant-hill, which had a round form, rose in the grass at the
border of a path, and had sustained no injury. 1 soon perceived that the
freshness of the air and the dew invited the Ants to walk over the sur-
face of their nest ; they began by making new apertures : several of the
Ants might be seen arriving at the same time, thrusting their heads from
the entrances, and at length adventuring forth to visit the environs.
This brought to my recollection a singular opinion of the ancients. They
believed that Ants were occupied in their architectural labours during
the night when the moon was at its full. Having noticed the movements
of these insects during the night, I found they were always abroad and
engaged about the dome of their habitation after sunset. This was
directly the reverse of what I had observed in the conduct of the \Voml
Ants (Formica rnfu), who only go out during the day, and close their

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 39

doors in the evening'. The contrast was still more remarkable than 1
had previously supposed, for upon visiting the Brown Ants some davs
after during a gentle rain, I saw all their architectural talents in full play.
.As soon as the rain commenced they left in great numbers their subter-
ranean residence, re-entered it almost immediately , and then returned bear-
ing between their teeth pellets of earth, which they deposited on the roof of
their nest. I could not at first conceive what this was meant for, but
at length I saw little walls start up on all sides, with spaces left between
them. In several places columns ranged at regular distances announced
halls, lodges, and passages, which the Ants proposed establishing; in a
word, it was the rough beginning of a new story. I watched with a
considerable degree of interest the most triflng movements of my masons,
and found that they did not work after the manner of Wasps and humble
Bees when occupied in constructing a covering to their nest. The latter
sit as it were astride on the border or margin of the covering, and take
it between their teeth to model, and attenuate it according to their wish.
The wax of which it is composed, and the paper which the Wasp em-
ploys, moistened by some kind of glue, are admirably adapted for the
purpose ; but the earth of which the Ants make use, from its often pos-
sessing little tenacity, must be worked up after some other manner.
Each Ant then carried between its teeth the pellet of earth it had formed
by scraping with the end of its mandibles the bottom of its abode, a cir-
cumstance which I have fiequently observed in open day. This little
mass of earth being composed of particles but just united, could be readily
kneaded and moulded as the Ants wished ; thus, when they had applied
it to the spot where they had to rest, they divided and pressed against it
with their teeth so as to fill up the little inequalities of their wall. The
Hiitennte followed all their movements, passing over each particle of
<':iriu as soon as it was placed in its proper position. The whole was
rendered more compact by pressing it lightly with the fore feet. This
work went on remarkably fast. After having traced out the plan of their
masonry in laying here and there foundations for the pillars and parti-
tions they were about to direct, they raised them gradually higher by
adding fresh materials. It often happened that two little walls, which
were to form a gallery, were raised opposite and at a slight distance
from each other. When they had attained the height of four or five
lines, the Ants busied themselves in covering in the space left between
them by a vaulted ceiling. As if they judged all their partitions of
sufficient elevation, they then quitted their labours in the upper part of
the building ; they affixed to the interior and upper part of each wall,
fragments of moistened earth in an almost horizontal direction, and in
such a way as to form a ledge which by extension would be made to join
that coming from, the opposite wall. These ledges were about half a
line in thickness, and the breadth of the galleries was for the most part
about a quarter of an inch. On one side several vertical partitions were
seen to form the scaffolding of a lodge, which communicated with several

40 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

corridors by apertures formed in the masonry, on another a regularly
formed hall was constructed, the vaulted ceiling of which was sustained
by numerous pillars ; further off again might be recognized the rudi-
ments of one of those cross-roads of which I have before spoken, and
in which several avenues terminate. These parts of the Ant-hill were
the most spacious ; the Ants, however, did not appear embarrassed in
constructing the ceiling to cover them in, although they were often more
than two inches in breadth. In the upper part of the angles formed by
the different walls, they laid the first foundations of this ceiling, and
from the top of each pillar, as from so many centres, a layer of earth,
horizontal and slightly convex, was carried forward to meet the several
portions coming from different points of the large public thoroughfare.
I sometimes, however, laboured under an apprehension that the building-
could not possibly resist its own weight, and that such extensive ceil-
ings, sustained only by a few pillars, would fall into ruins, from the
rain which continually dropped upon them ; but I was quickly con-
vinced of their stability, from observing that the earth brought by these
insects adhered at all points on the slightest contact, and that the rain so
far from lessening the cohesion of its particles, appeared even to in-
crease it. Thus, instead of injuring the building, it even contributed to
render it still more secure. These particles of moistened earth, which
are only held together by juxta position, require a fall of rain to cement
them more closely, and thus varnish over, as it were, those places where
the walls and galleries remain uncovered. All inequalities in the ma-
sonry then disappear. The upper part of these stories, formed of seve-
ral pieces brought together, presents but one single layer of compact
earth. They require for their consolidation nothing but the heat of the
sun. It sometimes, however, happens, that a violent rain will destroy
the apartments, especially should they be but slightly arched, but under
these circumstances the Ants re-construct them with wonderful patience.
These different labours were carried on at the same time, and were so
closely followed up in the different quarters, that the Ant-hill received
an additional story in the course of seven or eight hours. All the
vaulted ceilings being formed upon a regular plan, and at equal distances,
from one wall to the other, constituted, when finished, but one single
roof. Scarcely had the Ants finished one story than they began to con-
struct another, but they had not time to finish it, the rain ceasing before
the ceiling was fully completed. They still, however, continued, their
work for a few hours, taking advantage of the humidity of the earth, but
a keen north wind soon sprung up and hastily dried the collected frag-
ments, which no longer possessing the same adherence fell into powder.
The Ants finding their efforts ineffectual, were at length discouraged ;
but what was my astonishment when I saw them destroy all the apart-
ments that were yet uncovered scattering here arid there over the last
story, the materials of which they had been composed. These facts in-
contestibly prove that they enploy neither gum nor any kind of cement

./ Ha

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 41

to bind together the several substances of their nest, but in place of this
avail themselves of the rain to work or knead the earth, leaving- the sun
and wind to consolidate it.

My own observations tend to confirm some of the statements which
I have related. I put some Ants -of the yellow species (Formica flava)
into a large glass bottle, that I might watch their proceedings under-
ground ; and I had likewise obtained some of the Black Ants (Formica
rufa), which I likewise placed in the same situation. For the first two
or three days no work was carried on ; at the end of that time the top of
the mould which was placed in the bottle was covered with dead and
dying of the black species ; for the Yellow Ants, being in much larger
numbers, had conquered the Black Ants and destroyed them. They then
set about constructing galleries ; for, unlike the species I have related
above, they dig into the earth instead of raising chambers on the top of
it. I have not been able to ascertain whether the Ants are totally blind,
but I have reason to think that their antennae, or feelers answer the pur-
pose of eyes ; for, as I was watching them one day, I perceived that an
Ant had lost one of its antennte, and in consequence was proceeding
very slowly, almost every second touching the earth with its remaining
feeler, as if it had been totally blind. They proceeded very quickly in
their work of excavating galleries, and made passages in every direction.
In about a week after I had placed the first Ants in the bottle, I procured
another quantity and put them on the top of the earth. A very curious
circumstance then occurred, which, if I had not seen with my own eyes,
I certainly should not have believed. One of the Ants had been acci-
dentally cut in two, and I saw the legs and the head running about the
mould evidently in search of its body. In about two hours it had been
successful, for I saw it joining its body to its head and legs, and it then
walked about with as much activity as the rest.*

DIPTERA. Few can have failed to remark that Flies walk with the
utmost ease along the cieling of a room, and no less so upon a perpen-
dicular looking-glass ; and though this were turned downwards, the Flies
would not fall off, but could maintain their position undisturbed with
their backs hanging downwards. The conjectures devised,by naturalists
to account for this singular circumstance, previous to the ascertaining of
the actual facts, are not a little amusing. Some suppose, says the Abb6
de la Pluche, that when the Fly marches over any polished body on
which neither her claws nor her points can fasten, she sometimes com-
presses her sponge, and causes it to evacuate a fluid, which fixes her in
such a manner as prevents her falling, without diminishing the facility
of her progress ; but it is much more probable that the sponges corres-
pond with the fleshy balls which accompany the claws of dogs and cats,
and that they enable the Fly to proceed with a softer pace, and contri-

* J. B. B.

42 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

bute to the preservation of its claws, whose pointed extremities would
soon be impaired without this prevention. Its ability to walk on glass,
says Shaw, proceeds partly from some little ruggedness thereon, but
chiefly from a tarnish or dirty smoky substance adhering to the surface ;
so that though the sharp points on the sponges cannot penetrate the sur-
face of the glass, it may easily catch hold of the tarnish. This is evi-
dently borrowed from Hook ; but it is singular that none of these fanciers
ever took the trouble to ascertain the existence of either a gluten
squeezed out by the Fiy, or of the smoky tarnish on glass. Even the
shrewd Reaumur could not give a satisfactory explanation of the cir-
cumstance.

The earliest correct notion of this curious subject was entertained by
Derham, who, upon mentioning the provision made for insects that hang
on smooth surfaces, says, I might here name divers Flies and other in-
sects who, besides their sharp hooked nails, have also skinny palms to
their feet, to enable them to stick to glass and other smooth bodies by
means of the pressure of the atmosphere, after the manner as I have seen
boys carry heavy stones with only a wet piece of leather clapped on the
top of the stone. The justly celebrated Mr. White, of Selborne, appa-
rently without the aid of microscopical investigation, adopted Derham's
opinion, adding the interesting illustration, that in the decline of the year,
when the Flies crowd to windows and become sluggish and torpid, they
are scarcely able to lift their legs, which seem glued to the glass, where
many actually stick till they die j whereas they are during warm weather
so brisk and alert that they easily overcome the pressure of the atmo-
sphere. The apparatus in the feet of the Fly consists of two or three
membraneous suckers, connected with the last joint of the foot by a
narrow neck, of a funnel shape, immediately under the base of each
claw, and moveable in all directions. The suckers are covered above
and hollow below the edges, being margined with minute serratures,
and the hollow portion covered with down. In order to produce the
vacuum and the pressure, these membranes are separated and expanded,
and when the Fly is about to lift its foot, it brings them together and
folds them up as it were between the two claws. By means of a com-
mon microscope these interesting movements may be observed when a
Fly is confined in a wine glass.

The CHEQUERED BLOW FLY (Sarcophaga Carnaria) hatches its eggs in an
abdominal pouch, and instead of eggs, depositing maggots upon dead
carcases. The eggs of all Flesh Flies are in sultry weather hatched with
great rapidity ; but in the case of the Chequered Blow Fly, nature has pro-
vided the means of still more rapid destruction for removing the offen-
sive part of carcases. The arrangement of the numerous minute larvce
in the pouch is very remarkable, and resembles the coil of a watch-
spring, or a roll of ribbon. Reaumur had the patience and perseverance
to uncoil the multitudinous assemblage of Flies in embryo, and found it
about two inches and a half in length, though the body of the Mother

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 43

F/v herself was only about one-third of an inch ; and he computed that
there were about20, 000 young in the coil. When this extraordinary fecun-
dity is considered, we need not wonder at the countless swarms which
appear, as if by magic, upon a joint of meat during hot weather. Like
most female insects, the Mother Fly dies in a few days after giving birth
to her numerous brood ; but, unlike Oviparous Flies, she seems to take a
considerable time to deposit the whole. It would be impossible, indeed,
for her pouch to contain the larvae if they were all hatched at the same
time ; and therefore it has been so ordered by Providence that they
should arrive at maturity in succession.

From the early death of the mother, Reaumur conjectured that they
did not scruple to eat their way through her bowels ; but he disproved
his supposition by a most decisive experiment. He too'c a Fly, which
had already deposited a few larvae, and closed the natural opening of the
pouch with sealing-wax, so that it was impossible any more could make
their exit there. The mother lived several days longer than she would
have done had she been left at liberty to produce her young, but not one
of them attempted to force a passage, after having been shut up for ten
days.

The COMMON GNAT (Culex Pipiens) constructs a boat-shaped raft,
which will float, of eggs heavy enough to sink in the water, if dropped
into it one by one. The eggs are nearly of the pyramidal form of a gun-
powder flask, rather pointed at the upper, and broad at the under end,
with a projection like the mouth of a bottle.

The first operation of the Mother Gnat is to fix herself by the four fore
legs to the side of a bucket, or upon a floating leaf, with her body level
with and resting upon the surface of the water, excepting the last ring
of the tail, which is a little raised ; she then crosses her two hind legs in
form of an X, the inner opening of which is intended to form the scaf-
folding of her structure. She accordingly brings the inner angle of her
crossed legs close to the raised part of her body, and places in it an egg
covered, as is usual among insects, with a glutinous fluid. On each side
of this egg she places another, all which adhere firmly together by means
of their giue, and form a triangular figure, which is the stern of the raft.
She proceeds in the same manner to add egg after egg in a vertical posi-
tion, carefully regulating the shape by her crossed legs ; and as her raft
increases in magnitude, she pushes the whole gradually to a greater dis-
tance, and when she has about half-finished she uncrosses her legs, and
places them parallel ; the angle being no longer necessary for shaping
the boat. Each raft consists of from two hundred and fifty to three hun-
dred and fifty eggs, which, when all laid, float on the water secure from
sinking, and are finally abandoned by the mother. They are hatched in
a few days, the Grubs issuing from the lower end ; but the boat, now
composed of empty shells, continues to float till it is destroyed by the
weather,

Kirby justly describes this little vessel as resembling a London

I' 2

44 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

wherry, being sharp and higher, as sailors say, fore and aft, convex be-
low, and concave above, and always floating on its keel. The most
violent agitation of the water, he adds, cannot sink it ; and what is more
extraordinary, and a property still a desideratum in our life-boats,
though hollow, it never becomes filled with water, even though exposed.
To put this to the test, says Kirby, I placed half a dozen of these boats
upon the surface of the tumbler, half full of water ; I then poured upon
them a stream of that element from the mouth of a quart bottle, held a
foot above them. Yet, after this treatment, which was so rough as ac-
tually to project one out of the glass, I found them floating as before
upon their bottoms, and not a drop of water within their cavity.

APTERA. The WHITE ANTS, or Termites. Were our houses built in the
same proportion as their nests, they would be twelve or fifteen inches
higher than the Monument, and four or five times higher than the pyramids
Egypt, with corresponding dimensions in the basements of the edifices.
These statements are, perhaps, necessary to impress the extraordinary
labours of Ants upon the mind for we are all more or less sensible to
the force of comparisons. The analogies between the works of insects
and of men are not perfect ; for insects are all provided with instruments
peculiarly adapted to the end which they instinctively seek, while man
has to form a plan by progressive thought and upon the experience of
others, and to complete it with tools which he also invents. The
termites do not stand above a quarter of an inch high, while their nests
are frequently twelve feet. Nor is it only in constructing dwellings for
themselves that the termites of Africa and other hot climates, employ
their masonic skill. Though like our Ants and Wasps, they are almost
omnivorous, yet wood, particularly when felled and dry, seems their
favorite article of food ; but they have an utter aversion to feeding in the
light, and always eat their way with all expedition into the interior.
It thence would seem necessary for them either to leave the bark of a
tree, or the outer portion of the beam or door of a house undevoured,
or to eat in open day. They do neither, but are at the trouble of con-
structing galleries of clay in which they can conceal themselves and
feed in obscurity. In all their foraging excursions, indeed they build
covert ways, by which they can go ont and return to their encampment.
Others of the species (for there are several^) instead of building galleries
exercise the art of miners, and make their approaches under, ground,
penetrating beneath the foundation of houses or areas, and rising again
either through the floors, or by entering the bottom of the posts that
support the building, when they follow the course of the fibres, and make
their way to the top, boring holes and cavities in different places as
they proceed. Multitudes enter the roof and intersect it with pipes
and galleries formed of wet clay, which serve for passages in all direc-
tions, and enable them more readily to fix their habitations in it. They
prefer the softer woods, such as pine and fir, which they hollow out
with such nicety that they leave the surface whole after having eaten

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 45

away the inside. A shelf or plank attacked in this manner, looks solid
to the eye, when, if weighed, it will not out-balance two sheets of paste-
board of the same dimensions. It sometimes happens, that they carry
this operation so far on stakes in the open air, as to render the bark too
flexible for their purpose ; when they remedy the defect by plastering
the whole stick with a sort of mortar which they make with clay, so that
on being struck, the form vanishes, and the artificial covering falls in
fragments on the ground. In the woods , when a large tree falls from
age or accident, they enter on the side next the ground, and devour it
at leisure, till little more than the bark is left ; but in this case, they
take no precaution of strengthening the outward defence, but leave it in
such a state as to deceive an eye unaccustomed to see trees thus gutted
of their insides, and you may as well, says Mr. Smeathman, step on a
cloud. It is an extraordinary fact, that when these creatures have
formed pipes in the roof of a house, instinct directs them to prevent its
fall, which would ensue from their having sapped the posts on which it
rests ; but as they gnaw away the wood, they fill up the interstices with
clay, tempered to a surprising degree of hardness ; so that when the
house is pulled down these posts are transformed from wood to stone.
They make the walls of their galleries of the same composition as their
nests, varying the materials according to their kind, one species using
red clay, another black clay, and the third a woody substance, cemented
with gums as a security from the attacks of their enemies, particularly
the common Ant, which being defended by a strong horny shell, is more
than a match for them, and when it can get at them, rapaciously seizes
them and drags them to its nest for food for its young brood. If any
accident breaks down part of their walls, they repair the breach with all
speed, instinct guides them to perform their office in the creation, by
mostly confining their attacks to trees that are beginning to decay, or
such timber as has been severed from its root for use, and would decay
in time. Vigorous healthy trees do not require to be destroyed, and
accordingly these consumers have no taste for them.

A MASON SPIDER (Mygale Ccementaria) found in the South of
France, usually selects for her nest a place bare of grass, sloping in
such a manner as to carry off the water, and of a firm soil, without rocks
or small stones. She digs a gallery a foot or two in depth, and of a
diameter (equal throughout) sufficient to admit of her easily passing.
She lines this with a tapestry of silk glued to the walls. The door,
which is circular, is constructed of many layers of earth kneaded and
bound together with silk. Externally it is flat and rough, corresponding
to the earth, around the entrance, for the purpose no doubt of conceal-
ment ; on the inside it is convex and tapestried thickly writh a web of
fine silk. The threads of this door tapestry are prolonged and strongly
attached to the upper side of the entrance, forming an excellent hinge,
which when pushed open by the Spider shuts again by its own weight,
without the aid of spring hinges. When the Spider is at home and her

46 ON ENTOMOLOGY.

door forcibly opened by an intruder, she pulls it strongly inwards, and
even when half open often snatches it out of the hand ; but when she is
foiled in this, she retreats to the bottom of her den as her last resource.
The Rev. Revett Shepherd has often noticed in the fen ditches of Norfolk
a very large Spider (the species not yet determined), which actually forms
a raft for the purpose of obtaining its prey with more facility. Keep-
ing its station upon a ball of weeds about three inches in diameter, pro-
bably held together by slight silken cords, it is wafted along the surface
of the water upon this floating island, which it quits the moment it sees
a drowning insect. The booty thus seized, it devours at leisure upon
its raft, under which it retires when alarmed by any danger. That Spiders
may be able to breath under water, we can well understand from their
breathing like amphibious reptiles by means of gills, but there is an
aquatic spider (Argyroneta aquatica) which is not contented as a frog
would be with the air furnished by the water, but actually carries down
a supply of air from the atmosphere to her subaqueous nest. This
Spider does not like stagnant water, but prefers slow running streams
and ditches, where she may often be seen in the vicinity of London and
elsewhere, living in her diving bell, which shines through the water
like a little globe of silver, her singular economy was first described by
Clerck and De Geer. The shining appearance, says Clerck, proceeds
either from an inflated globule surrounding the abdomen, or from the
space between the body and the water. The Spider, when wishing to
inhale the air, rises to the surface with its body still submersed, and
only the part containing the spinneret rising just to the surface, when
it briskly opens and moves its four teats. A deep cone of hair keeps
the water from approaching or wetting the abdomen. It comes up for
air about four times an hour or oftener, though I have good reason to
suppose it can continue without it for several days together. " I found in
the middle of May," says Clerck, " one male and ten females, which I
put into a glass filled with water, where they lived together very quietly
for eight days. I put some duck weed (Lemna) into the glass to afford
them shelter, and the females began to stretch diagonal threads in a con-
fused manner from it to the sides of the glass, about half way down.
Each of the females afterwards fixed a close bag to the edge of the glass,
from which the water was expelled by the air from the spinneret, and
thus a cell was formed capable of containing the whole animal; Here
they remained quietly with their abdomens in their cells, and their
bodies still plunged in the water ; and in a short time brimstone coloured
bags of eggs appeared in each cell, filling it about a fourth part. On
the 7th July, several young ones swam out from one of the bags, all
this time the old ones had nothing to eat, and yet they never attacked
one another, as other Spiders would have been apt to do."

I have now described some, though by no means all, of each order of
insects, and 1 shall conclude with some observation regarding it as a

ON ENTOMOLOGY. 47

Study. It has been objected to by many, that it tends to withdraw the
mind from subjects of higher moment, that it cramps and narrows the
range of thought, and that it destroys or at least weakens the finer
creations of the fancy. Now we should allow this objection in its
fullest extent, and even be disposed to carry it further than is usually
done, if the collecting of specimens only, or as the French expres-
sively call them chips (Echantillons) be called a study. But the mere
collector is not and cannnot be justly considered as a naturalist ; and
taking the term naturalist in its enlarged sense, some distinguished in-
stances can be adduced in opposition to the objection. Charles James
Fox can be given as an illustrious example, and I may add the names of
some of our distinguished poets, Goldsmith, Thompson, Gray, and
Darwin, who were all enthusiastic naturalists. It may be new to some
who are familiar with the elegy in a country church yard, to be told
that its author was at the pains to turn the characteristics of the Linnscan
order of insects into Latin Hexameters ; the manuscript of which is
still preserved in his interleaved copy of the Systema Naturae. Further,
to use the words of Kirby and Spence, whose work on Entomology is
one of the most instructing and pleasing books on the Science, Aristotle
among the Greeks, and Pliny the elder among the Romans, may be
denominated the fathers of Natural History, as well as the greatest
philosophers of their day ; yet both these made insects a principal object
of their attention. In more recent times, if we look abroad, what
names are greater than those of Redi, Malpighi, Vallisnieri, Swammer-
dam, Leeuwenhoek, Reaumur, Linnaeus, De Geer, Bonnet and the
Hubers ; and at home, what philosophers have done more good to their
country and to human nature, than Ray, Willoughby, Lister, and
Derham ; yet all these made the study of insects one of their most
favorite pursuits. A collection of insects is to the true naturalist,
what a collection of medals is to the accurate student of history. The
mere collector, who looks only to the shining wings of the one, or the
green rust of the other, derives little knowledge from his pursuit j but
the cabinet of the Entomologist becomes rich in the most interesting
subjects of contemplation, when he regards it in the genuine spirit of
scientific inquiry. What, for instance, can be so delightful as to examine
the wonderful variety of structure in this portion of the creation, and
above all to trace the beautiful gradations by which one species runs
into another. Their differences are so minute, that an unpractised eye
would proclaim their identity, and yet when the species are separated,
and not very distantly, they become visible even to the common observer.
It is in examinations such as these, that the naturalist finds a delight
of the highest order. While it is thus one of the legitimate objects of
his study to attend to minute differences of structure, form and colour-
ing, he is not less interested in the investigation of habits and economy,
and in this respect the insect world is inexhaustibly rich. We find
herein examples of instinct to parallel those of all the larger animals,

48 ON K N T ( ) M O L O G Y .

whether they are solitary or social, and innumerable others besides,
altogether unlike those manifested in the superior departments of ani-
mated nature. These instincts have various directions, and are deve-
loped in a more or less striking manner to our senses, according to the
force of the motive, by which they are governed. Some of their instincts
have for their object the preservation of insects from external attack;
some have reference to procuring food, and involve many remarkable
stratagems ; some direct their social economy, and regulate the condition
under which they live together, either in monarchies or republics, their
colonizations and their migrations ; but the most powerful instinct which
belongs to insects has regard to the preservation of their species. We
find accordingly, that as the necessity for this preservation is of the
utmost importance in the economy of nature, so for this especial object
many insects whose offspring, whether in the egg or larva state, are
peculiarly exposed to danger, are endued with an almost miraculous
foresight, and with an ingenuity, perseverance and unconquerable
industry for the purpose of avoiding those dangers, which are not to be
paralleled even by the most singular efforts of human contrivance. The
same ingenuity which is employed for protecting either eggs, or Cater-
pillars and Grubs, or Pupa and Chrysalides is also exercised by many
insects, for their own preservation against the changes of temperature
to which they are exposed, or against their natural enemies. Many
species employ those contrivances during the period of their hyberna-
tion or winter sleep. For all these purposes, some dig holes in the
earth and form them into cells ; others build nests of extraneous sub-
stances, such as bits of wood and leaves ; others roll up leaves into cases,
which they close with the most curious art; others build a house of mud
and line it with the cotton of trees, or the petals of the most delicate
flowers ; others form cocoons in which they undergo their transformation ;
and others dig subterraneous galleries, which in, complexity of arrange-
ment, in solidity, and in complete adaptation to their purposes, vie with
the cities of civilized man.

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